Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan, Lady Mallowan (née Miller, 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), usually known by her first married name, Agatha Christie, was an English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot (with the novel debut being The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920), Tommy and Tuppence (with the novel debut being The Secret Adversary in 1922), and Miss Marple (with the novel debut being The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930). She is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time, particularly in the mystery genre.

A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—a nickname now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery". She wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. She is the best-selling novelist of all time, her books having sold more than two billion copies.

Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six consecutive rejections, but this changed in 1920, when The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring detective Hercule Poirot, was published. Her first husband was Archibald Christie; they married in 1914 and had one child before divorcing in 1928. Following the breakdown of her marriage and the death of her mother in 1926, she made international headlines by going missing for 11 days. During both world wars, she served in hospital dispensaries, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the poisons that featured in many of her novels, short stories, and plays. Following her marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930, she spent several months each year on archaeological excavations in the Middle East and used her first-hand knowledge of this profession in her fiction.