The disappearance has been the subject of great speculation and imagination, and has even been the subject of an episode of Doctor Who, and Comedy Central’s Drunk History.Īs a reminder that we all contain multitudes, Agatha Christie, the well-coiffed, put-together author of mystery was also known to hang ten. To this day, no one knows exactly what happened, but it seems likely she simply wanted to get away from her tumultuous home life. Eleven days later she turned up at the Old Swan Hotel, checked in under her husband’s mistress’s last name. After she left her home, her car was found abandoned and the police feared the worst – dredging the local lakes and even tapping Archie’s phone. 1926 was a turbulent year for the writer: her mother had just passed away, and her husband, Archie, had recently revealed he was having an affair and had asked for a divorce. In a plot worthy of one of her own novels, Agatha Christie disappeared from her London home in 1926 without a trace for 11 days. Since she was not particularly camera-shy, it is likely she simply did not want to be recognized in public. Though Christie took many photographs in her personal life, she was known to request that no likeness was printed on the jackets of her novels. Christie even took the role of honorary president of the club in 1956, so presumably she kept her word. As part of its membership, each writer needed to swear a (mostly tongue-in-cheek) oath to never keep vital clues from their readers and to never use entirely fictional poisons as a plot crutch. In fact, her knowledge of poisons was such that her debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles received a glowing write-up… from a pharmaceutical magazine.ħ) SHE SWORE THE OFFICIAL OATH OF DETECTIVE WRITINGįounded in 1928, The London Detective Club was a social club for crime writers, of which Christie was a member in good standing. Many of her slain characters were poisoned, and this is likely due to Christie’s past working in a dispensary during war-time which equipped her with a working knowledge of pharmaceuticals.
Though most of Christie’s novels involved murder, she was not big on gruesome violence. But seeing as Poirot’s debut was also that of Christie’s, it is poetic that the following year Christie herself passed away. The New York Times printed a front-page obituary for the character on August 6, detailing his fictional life’s achievements. When he perished in the 1975 novel Curtain the reaction from fans was fierce. Hercule Poirot is the only fictional character in history to receive an obituary from The New York Times. In particular, it was her grandmother’s cheerfulness cut by her ability to (correctly) assume the worst in everyone that truly drove the character.ĥ) HERCULE POIROT RECEIVED A NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARY Marple was an amalgam of old women Christie used to meet in the villages as a child, as well as her grandmother. The only other detective Christie wrote who rivaled Hercule Poirot in popularity was Miss Jane Marple. She received no formal education until she was sent to finishing school in Paris at the age of 15. Fortunately, the bright young Agatha was able to teach herself and fell in love with English poetry. It was rejected by six publishers before it was printed in 1920.Īgatha Christie’s childhood was unconventional for many reasons, one of which being her homeschooling and her mother’s insistence that she not learn to read until the age of eight. Inglethorp and was the introduction of the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. The dare produced Christie’s first thriller The Mysterious Affair at Styles about the poisoning of a one Mrs. Though Christie growing up was an avid reader, she did not pen her first novel until her sister, Madge, dared her to. She successfully kept her identity as Mary Westmacott a secret for 20 years. The name “Mary Westmacott” comes from Christie’s second name, Mary, and the “Westmacott” from some distant relatives. The six Westmacott novels were bittersweet explorations of life and love, and much to Christie’s joy were rather successful. When not writing some of the most classic crime thrillers of all time, Agatha Christie was writing under the alias Mary Westmacott. … 1) SHE PUBLISHED SIX BOOKS UNDER A PSEUDONYM
From an unconventional childhood to a mysterious disappearance, untangle the complex and storied life of one of literature’s greatest crime writers. The undisputed Queen of whodunits, Agatha Christie, had a few mysteries of her own.