Dame Agatha Miller Christie was the extraordinarily prolific British mystery writer who created two of the most beloved detectives of the genre: Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. Prolific hardly begins to describe it – Agatha Christie’s works rank third in sales after the Bible and William Shakespeare! Not content with all of that, Agatha Christie also produced several romance novels under the name “Mary Wesmacott†and also wrote the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap. She was born into the wealthy upper middle class, and portrayed that genre most successfully in her fiction. Colonels, country squires, dames, ladies and earls pepper her prose, and she is distinctly British. One never forgets that Poirot, however clever, is a foreigner! Agatha Christie has provided cozy comfort for millions down through the years, not the least of which derives from some of her own personal history. While married to the very handsome airman, Archibald Christie (with whom she had her only child, a daughter, Rosalind), Agatha disappeared for a ten day period when their marital troubles (that is to say, Archie’s mistress) became apparent. Her disappearance was top news, and thousands participated in the search before she was discovered at a hotel in Yorkshire. She never publicly explained the affair – well, she was a woman of mystery, after all! In later years, Agatha had a long and happy marriage to Sir. Max Mallowan, an archeologist, whom she accompanied on many Middle Eastern digs. She wrote continuously, right up until her death, and her work is as appreciated today as it was in her lifetime.
