Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie (1890-1976), English novelist, who was a prolific writer of detective fiction. She was born in Torquay. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) began her career. Her mysteries are noted for clever and surprising twists of plot and for the creation of two unconventional fictional detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Poirot is the hero of many of her works, including the classic The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and Curtain (1975), in which the detective dies.

Her first marriage, to Archibald Christie, ended in divorce in 1928. In 1930, while travelling in the Middle East, Christie met the noted English archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan. They were married that year, and from that time on Christie accompanied her husband on annual trips to Iraq and Syria. She used the expeditions as material for Murder in Mesopotamia (1930), Death on the Nile (1937), and Appointment with Death (1938).

Christie's plays include The Mousetrap, produced continuously in London since 1952, and Witness for the Prosecution (1953; film 1957), for which she received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for 1954-1955. She also wrote romantic novels under the pen-name Mary Westmacott. Her stories have been made into a number of television series and films, most centring on her characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. In 1971 she was made a DBE.