Agatha Christie (15.09.1890 - 12.01.1976) - English writer.
Agatha Christie (full name Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie) was a prominent English crime novelist and short story writer. She was also the author of the world’s longest play “The Mousetrap”. She was born on September 15th, 1890, in Torquay, Devon. She was the youngest child in the family of wealthy American settlers. She got excellent home education. With the start of the First World War, Agatha applied to work as a nurse at the hospital. She liked this occupation and found it rather useful. Later on, she worked as a pharmacist at the chemist’s and that influenced many of her stories. More than eighty crimes from her fiction were committed by poisoning.
In 1914, during Christmas time, Agatha married Colonel Archibald Christie, whom she admired for several years. They had a daughter Rosalind. This was the time when she seriously took up writing. In 1920, her first novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, was published. For the first time readers met a fictional character Hercule Poirot, who consequently appeared in many other Christie’s books. In 1926, her husband left her, as he was in love with another woman. After this case, she disappeared from the house and nobody could find her. This caused a loud public outcry, as the writer already had lots of fans. She was finally found two weeks later and diagnosed with amnesia. In 1928 Archibald and Agatha got divorced. Later, in her semi-autobiographical novel “Unfinished Portrait” she described the details of her disappearance.
In1930, she met her second husband, Max Mallowan, who was much younger than her. He was an archeologist, so they spent lots of time in Iraq and Syria. These expeditions were later described in many of her stories. She also wrote an autobiography about that period of her life - “Tell me how you live”. In 1956, the talented writer was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her achievements in the field of literature. Starting from 1971, her health began gradually to deteriorate, nevertheless she continued writing. She died on January 12th, 1976, after a short cold. Agatha Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard, inherited the rights to some of her literary works, including her most successful play “The Mousetrap”.