English 383


Brief Biography of Agatha Christie



  • 1890 - born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, in Devon, third child of upper middle class family mother was Clarissa Margaret Boechmer; father was Frederick Alva Miller, an American living in England on income stemming from the family business

  • 1890-1905 - Agatha informally educated at home; dancing, singing and piano lessons were among the subjects she learned

  • 1901 - her father dies leaving the family in difficult financial position

  • 1906 - Agatha goes to Mrs. Dryden's school in Paris where she studied singing and the piano

  • 1910 - Agatha's society debut occurs in Cairo owing to family financial difficulties

  • 1914 - Christmas Eve - Agatha married Captain Archibald Christie

  • 1914-1918 - During World War I Christie works as a nurse in a Devon hospital and later in the dispensary. She trained for the Apothecaries' exam - here she learns all about drugs and poisons; she also begins her first detective novel which isn't published until 1920

  • 1919 - her daughter Rosalind is born

  • 1920 Her first detective novel - The Mysterious Affair at Styles is published by the Bodley Head Press (run by Allen Lane); it features her Belgian detective Hercule Poirot; she goes on in her career to write over 30 Poirot novels and he becomes one of the most famous of Classic Detective Fiction detectives

  • 1922 - her second novel introduces Tuppence and Tommy Beresford - an upper middle class couple who are detectives

  • 1923 - Archie and Agatha take part in a round the world trip, the British Empire Exhibition Mission - stops included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa

  • 1926 - her mother dies; her husband initiates divorce proceedings; Dec. 3 Agatha vanishes and sparks a national furor over her disappearance; she turns up 3 weeks later in a Harrogate Hotel apparently suffering from amnesia, while living under the name of Teresa Neele, in part the name of the woman Archie wanted to marry

  • 1928 - Agatha and Archie were divorced; Agatha introduces Miss Marple in the short story "The Tuesday Night Club"

  • 1929 - Agatha travels through Turkey to Baghdad on the Orient Express

  • 1930 - second trip to Baghdad where she meets Max Mallowan, and archaeologist whom she marries; Miss Marple takes centre stage in her first novel - The Murder at the Vicarage; -Agatha's first play Black Coffee performed at the Embassy Theatre in London's West End; Giant's Bread, the first novel published under her pseudonym of Mary Westmacott published - it is a non detective novel. The Westmacott works are often seen as autobiographical

  • 1931 - The Sittaford Mystery - a detective novel with one of her non series detectives - Emily Trefusis - is published to strong critical reviews

  • 1934-1955 - a period of great productivity, often regarded as Agatha Christie's high point as a writer - many critics consider her work produced after about 1955 to be less good

  • 1952 - The Mousetrap opens in the West End - it is still running

  • 1955 - Agatha Christie Ltd. founded to look after her many publications - it was seen as a commercialization of literature and there was much debate over its purpose and the propriety of an author needing a company to look after her commercial interests

  • 1956 - she is awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire

  • 1957 - she becomes President of the Detection Club

  • 1961 - Margaret Rutherford creates the character of Miss Marple on film in the adaptation of 4.50 from Paddington; the film title was Murder, She Said; Agatha was awarded an honourary doctorate from Exeter university

  • 1962-1971 - four more Miss Marple novels published - these took her further away from St. Mary Mead - to the West Indies in A Caribbean Mystery; to London in At Bertram's Hotel; and on a tour of Famous Houses and Garden of England in Nemesis

  • 1971 - Agatha named a Dame of the British Empire - the equivalent of a knighthood

  • 1976 - Agatha dies on 12 January and was buried on 16th January in St. ary's Churchyard in Cholsey, Oxfordshire; Miss Marple's last case - the novel Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple's Last Case was published posthumously though it had been written in the 1940s
Over the years, numerous stage and film adaptations of Miss Marple stories have taken place. Four prominent actors who played Miss Marple: Margaret Rutherford (from 1961-1964 - a total of 4 films); Angela Lansbury in 1980; Helen Hays in 1983; and Joan Hickson in 10 TV films starting in 1984

You might want to check out this web site for further information about Agatha Christie


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