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Agatha Christie (1890-1976)Agatha Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay, Devon, England. In 1914 she got married to Colonel Archibald Christie. Agatha worked in a hospital at that time and that experience was useful later on for her books. She divorced Colonel in 1926, still keeping his name professionally. Later, she married Max Mallowan, an archeologist, whom she accompanied on his excavations in Syria and Iraq. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles introduced the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot who would appear in about 25 of Christie's later novels. The other principal detective, Ms. Jane Marple, a elderly spinster, first appeared in Murder at the Vicarage, in 1930. She wrote about seventy of the most popular detective novels ever written. To take a break from murder, Christie wrote six romance novels under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott; two memoirs and an autobiography, aptly entitled, An Autobiography, published after her death. Mrs. Christie had many of her books turned into plays, and she decided to try for herself with The Mousetrap (1952), which has become the longest running play in history with the record of 8862 performances at one theater. In 1926 Agatha made news herself disappearing for a few days after her husband wanted a divorce. This created a mistery shadow upon the own writer. What made of her books an international success was the interesting web of plots and foreshadowing and the device of keeping a suspenseful atmosphere. Because of all these qualities in her writing, she had her books translated into more languages than the works of Shakespeare were. In recognition of her achievements she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1971. Five years later she died.
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