Biography of the famous writer Agatha Christie. Biography of the famous writer Agatha Christie Main literary characters

Biography and episodes of life Agatha Christie. When born and died Agatha Christie, memorable places and dates of important events in her life. writer quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Agatha Christie:

born September 15, 1890, died January 12, 1976

Epitaph

We wish you good luck
In that unknown and new world,
So that you don't get lonely
To keep the angels away.

Biography

The biography of Agatha Christie is an inspiring example of a woman who was able to live a happy and busy life. During her life, Agatha Christie published more than 60 detective stories, 6 novels and several collections of short stories. To this day, she remains one of the most published authors in the world, second only to the Bible itself and the works of Shakespeare.

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay to a respectable English family. The origin of Agatha Christie greatly affected her appearance, because from childhood the girl was brought up as a real English lady. Once, when she was given a dog, the girl locked herself in the toilet, where she said out loud several times: “I have a dog!” It seemed to her that a lady should be able to restrain her emotions in public. She always dreamed of a family and her own home. Therefore, probably, it was so difficult for her to break up with her first husband, who left her for another woman. However, then she remarried, and this marriage became happy for her, despite the fact that Agatha Christie's second husband, an archaeologist, was 15 years younger than her.

Agatha Christie in childhood and youth

Agatha Christie has always been shy and modest. Even when she became a world famous writer, Agatha Christie never delivered solemn speeches. Yes, and she began to write simply because she argued with her older sister, who at that time was already a published writer. Her first story was published by the publishing house after the seventh tryout, but this is what inspired her to further exploits.

Already at an advanced age, Agatha Christie admitted that she had lived a happy, vibrant life. According to her, her two most important dreams came true - she bought a car and attended a reception at the Queen of England herself. A cozy home, a favorite thing, a caring husband - everything she needed for happiness. Even when her health failed, she continued to write. Later, experts who studied her later work came to the conclusion that the writer had Alzheimer's disease. Agatha Christie ended her autobiography with the words: “Thank you, Lord, for my good life and for all the love that has been bestowed upon me."

The death of Agatha Christie came on January 12, 1976, she died in her own house in the village of Cholsey. The cause of death of Agatha Christie was a short cold, which caused complications. The funeral of Agatha Christie took place nearby, in the church of St. Mary. The grave of Agatha Christie is located in the cemetery belonging to this church. The detective club, which Agatha Christie headed 18 years before her death, still exists today. The memory of Agatha Christie does not fade to this day.

Agatha Christie with her daughter Rosalind and her grandson Matthew Prichard

life line

September 15, 1890 Date of birth of Agatha Christie (Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan, née Miller).
1914 Marriage to Archibald Christie.
1920 Publication of Agatha Christie's first novel, The Secret Affair at Styles.
1928 Divorce from Archibald Christie.
1930 Marriage to Max Mallowan.
1956 Agatha Christie is awarded the Order of the British Empire.
1958 Heading by Agatha Christie of the English Detective Club.
1971 Awarding Agatha Christie the title of chevalier lady.
January 12, 1976 Date of death of Agatha Christie.

Memorable places

1. Torquay, UK, where Agatha Christie was born.
2. The Old Swan Hotel, where Agatha Christie stayed during her disappearance in 1926.
3. Mansion Abney Hall in Cheshire, home of Agatha Christie, where she often stayed.
4. Wallingford, UK, where Agatha Christie's home was located and where she died.
5. Office of the Agatha Christie Limited foundation in London.
6. Greenway Manor, home of Agatha Christie, where the Agatha Christie Museum is today.
7. Winterbrook, Agatha Christie's home in Cholsey, where she died.
8. Cemetery of the church of St. Mary in Cholsey, where Agatha Christie is buried.

Episodes of life

Shortly after the death of Agatha Christie's mother, her husband asked for a divorce, it turned out that he fell in love with his golf colleague. Agatha refused to give a divorce, and soon simply disappeared from the house. At that time, the writer already had many fans, so her loss caused a public outcry. Agatha Christie was searched for 11 days until she was discovered in a spa hotel, where she calmly took baths and played the piano all day. The doctors attributed her disappearance to amnesia. And years later, psychologist Andrew Norman came to the conclusion that there really could be a dissociative fugue, which was caused by a mental disorder or severe shock due to the stress in Christie's life: the death of her mother and her husband's infidelity.

Agatha Christie once jokingly admitted that she invents plots for her books while washing dishes. According to her, this is such a stupid and boring activity that the thought of killing itself comes to mind. Relatives said that the process of writing a book, as a rule, went like this: Agatha Christie pondered everything in her head, simultaneously entering some thoughts into her notebook, and then one day, when the novel was fully ripening in her head, she closed in office and wrote it from start to finish. One of the writer's acquaintances claimed that Christie did not always know who the killer would be in her novel, she first wrote it, then, at the very end, she chose the suspect, and then she went through the book again and added the details necessary to confirm the hero's guilt.

Agatha Christie preferred to write by hand; secretaries and assistants typed her texts on a typewriter. Most of all, she loved to write books while lying in the bathroom - Agatha Christie took a warm bath, put a board with apples on it and wrote page after page. But since the writer was a real Englishwoman, she could not always afford it in the presence of the servants, so when there was one of the servants in the house, she sat down at the desk so as not to embarrass them.

Agatha Christie with her second husband Max Mallowan, headstone on the grave of Agatha Christie

Covenant

"Freedom is worth fighting for."

"One of the greatest secrets of existence is to be able to enjoy the gift of life that is given to you."

Transfer from the cycle "Top Secret" - "Agatha Christie. Queen of Detectives"

condolences

“She is like a literary conjurer who puts the cards face down, shuffles them with her cunning fingers and invites us to guess them again and again in order to deceive once again. It is highly doubtful that any of her methods of killing the characters in her books could be successfully implemented in ordinary life. But although some moments seemed incredible, the readers of her books gladly refused to disbelieve, because this is Christiland, and millions of people around the world were happy to be distracted, entertained and bewildered by her books.
Phyllis Dorothy James, writer

Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan (Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan), nee Miller (Miller), better known by the name of her first husband as Agatha Christie was born September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon.

Her parents were wealthy immigrants from the United States. She was the youngest daughter. The Miller family had two more children: Margaret Frary (1879-1950) and son Louis Montan "Monty" (1880-1929). Agatha received a good home education, in particular, musical education, and only stage fright prevented her from becoming a musician.

During World War I, Agatha worked as a nurse in a hospital; she liked this profession and she spoke of it as "one of the most useful professions that a person can engage in." She also worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, which subsequently left an imprint on her work: 83 crimes in her works were committed through poisoning.

The first time Agatha got married on Christmas in 1914 for Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had been in love for several years - even when he was a lieutenant. They had a daughter, Rosalind. This period was the beginning of the creative path of Agatha Christie. In 1920 Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. There is speculation that the reason for Christie's approach to the detective was a dispute with her older sister Madge (who had already proved herself as a writer) that she, too, could create something worthy of publication. Only in the seventh publishing house the manuscript was printed with a circulation of 2000 copies. The aspiring writer received a £25 fee. In 1922 together with her husband, Agatha Christie made a round-the-world voyage along the route Great Britain - the Bay of Biscay - South Africa - Australia and New Zealand- Hawaiian Islands - Canada - USA - UK.

In 1926 Agatha's mother died. At the end of that year, Agatha Christie's husband Archibald confessed to being unfaithful and asked for a divorce because he had fallen in love with fellow golfer Nancy Neal. After a fight early December 1926 Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving a letter to her secretary claiming to have gone to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused a loud public outcry, since the writer already had fans of her work. For 11 days, nothing was known about Christie's whereabouts.

Agatha's car was found, in the cabin of which her fur coat was found. A few days later, the writer herself was discovered. As it turned out, Agatha Christie registered under the name Theresa Neal at the small spa hotel Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now the Old Swan Hotel). Christy gave no explanation for her disappearance, and two doctors diagnosed her with amnesia caused by a head injury.

Despite mutual affection at the beginning, the marriage of Archibald and Agatha Christie ended in divorce. in 1928.

In 1930 While traveling in Iraq, at the excavations in Ur she met her future husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. He was 15 years younger than her. Agatha Christie said about her marriage that for an archaeologist a woman should be as old as possible, because then her value increases significantly. Since then, she periodically spent several months of the year in Syria and Iraq on expeditions with her husband, this period of her life was reflected in the autobiographical novel Tell How You Live. In this marriage, Agatha Christie lived the rest of her life.

Thanks to Christie's travels with her husband to the Middle East, the events of several of her works took place there. Other novels (such as The Ten Little Indians) were set in or around the city of Torquay, the place where Christie was born. The novel "Murder on the Orient Express" 1934) was written at the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. Room 411 of the hotel where Agatha Christie lived is now her memorial museum. The Greenway Estate in Devon, which the couple bought in 1938, is under the protection of the Society for the Protection of Monuments (National Trust).

Christie often stayed at the Abney Hall mansion in Cheshire, which belonged to James Watts, her sister's husband. The action of at least two of Christie's works took place on this estate.

In 1956 Agatha Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 1971 for achievements in the field of literature, Agatha Christie was awarded the title Dame Commander (Dame Commander) of the Order of the British Empire, the owners of which also acquire the title of nobility "lady", used before the name. Three years earlier in 1968 The title of Knight of the Order of the British Empire was also awarded to Agatha Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, for achievements in the field of archeology.

In 1958 the writer headed the English Detective Club.

Between 1971 and 1974 Christie's health began to deteriorate, but despite this, she continued to write. Specialists at the University of Toronto examined Christie's style of writing during these years and suggested that Agatha Christie suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

In 1975, when she was completely weakened, Christie transferred all the rights to her most successful play, The Mousetrap, to her grandson.

The writer died January 12, 1976 at home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire after a short cold and was buried in the village of Cholsey.

Agatha Christie's books have been published in over 4 billion copies and translated into more than 100 languages.

She also holds the record for the most theatrical productions of a work. Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap was first staged in 1952 and is still on display to this day.

In 1920 Christie publishes her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which had previously been rejected five times by British publishers. Soon she has a whole series of works in which the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot acts: 33 novels, 1 play and 54 stories.

Continuing the tradition of the English masters of the detective genre, Agatha Christie created a couple of heroes: the intellectual Hercule Poirot and the comical, diligent, but not very smart Captain Hastings. If Poirot and Hastings were largely copied from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, then the old maid Miss Marple is a collective image reminiscent of the main characters of the writers M.Z. Braddon and Anna Catherine Green.

Miss Marple appeared in the story 1927 of the year "Evening club "Tuesday"" (The Tuesday Night Club). The prototype of Miss Marple was the grandmother of Agatha Christie, who, according to the writer, "was a good-natured person, but always expected the worst from everyone and everything, and with frightening regularity her expectations were justified."

Like Arthur Conan Doyle from Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie got tired of her hero Hercule Poirot by the end of the 1930s, but unlike Conan Doyle, she did not dare to “kill” the detective while he was at the peak of popularity. According to the writer's grandson, Matthew Pritchard, of the characters she invented, Christie liked Miss Marple more - "an old, smart, traditional English lady."

During World War II, Christie wrote two Curtain novels ( 1940 ) and Sleeping Murder, with which she intended to end the series of novels about Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, respectively. However, the books were published only in the 1970s.

Other detectives of Agatha Christie:

Colonel Race appears in four Agatha Christie novels. The colonel is an agent of British intelligence, he travels the world in search of international criminals. Reis is an employee of the MI5 espionage department. He is a tall, well-built, tanned man.

He first appears in The Man in the Brown Suit, a spy detective story set in South Africa. He also appears in the two Hercule Poirot novels Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile, where he assists Poirot in his investigation. V last time he appears in the novel 1944 of the year "Sparkling Cyanide", where he investigates the murder of his old friend. In this novel, Reis has already reached an advanced age.

Parker Pyne is the hero of 12 stories included in the collection Investigating Parker Pyne, as well as partially in the collections The Mystery of the Regatta and Other Stories and Trouble in Pollença and Other Stories. The Parker Pine series is not detective fiction in the conventional sense. The plot is usually based not on a crime, but on the story of Pine's clients, who, for various reasons, are dissatisfied with their lives. It is these grievances that bring clients to Pine's agency. In this series of works, Miss Lemon appears for the first time, leaving her job with Pine to get a job as a secretary to Hercule Poirot.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford (Tommy and Tuppence Beresford), full names Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley are a young amateur detective couple who first appear in The Mysterious Adversary. 1922 years, not yet married. They begin their lives blackmailing (for money and interest), but soon discover that private investigation brings more money and pleasures. In 1929, Tuppence and Tomie appear in the storybook Partners in Crime, in 1941 in N or M?, in 1968 in Snap Your Finger Only Once, and most recently in the 1973 novel Gates of Destiny. , which was Agatha Christie's last written novel, though not the last to be published. Unlike the rest of Agatha Christie's detectives, Tommy and Tuppence age with the real world and with each successive novel. Yes, to latest novel where they appear, they are under seventy.

Christy Agatha née Miller

English writer, "Queen of the Detective". Author of more than a hundred stories, 17 plays, more than 70 detective novels translated into dozens of languages.

Born in the city of Torquay, Devon, in a wealthy family, she received a good education at home, in particular, music, and only fear public speaking prevented her from choosing the path of a professional performer.

During the First World War, Agatha Miller worked as a nurse in a military hospital, studied pharmacology, thanks to which she gained knowledge about poisons, which was later used to create detective novels. At the same time, in between shifts, she began to write detective stories. In her own words, Agatha began to compose from a simple imitation of her sister, who was already published in magazines. The young writer believed that readers would be prejudiced against the fact that the author of detective stories was a woman, and she wanted to take on the pseudonym Martin West or Mostyn Gray. The publisher insisted on keeping the writer's own name and surname, convincing her that the name Agatha was rare and memorable. In 1914 she married Major Archibald Christie, who gave her a name but did not make her happy.

In 1920, Christie published his first detective story, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Here, for the first time, Christie brought out the amateur detective Hercule Poirot, so beloved by readers, who later turned out to be the hero of 25 of her detective novels. Among the novels where Poirot investigates crimes with unfailing success is the detective story The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which has become a classic.

The debut of another "private detective" - ​​Miss Marple - took place in 1930, when the novel "Murder in the Vicar's House" was published. In 1926, Agatha's mother died, and her husband, Colonel Archibald Christie, demanded a divorce. The reaction of Agatha Christie was so unexpected that the writer herself could hardly explain it in the future: Agatha disappeared.

For several days, she was intensively searched for and finally found in the hotel, registered under the name ... of the woman whom her husband was going to marry.

In 1928, the marriage of Agatha and Archibald Christie, from whom the daughter Rosalind was born, broke up. In 1930, Agatha Christie married a second time, to the archaeologist Sir Max Mullovan. Since then, she periodically spent several months of the year in Syria and Iraq on expeditions with her husband (hence the "eastern" cycle of her novels): "Murder on the Orient Express", "Baghdad Meeting".

Christie performed successfully and as a playwright - 16 of her plays were staged in London, some of which were made into films. The Witness for the Prosecution and The Mousetrap, staged in 1952 in London and withstood largest number performances throughout the history of the theatre.

In 1971, for achievements in the field of literature, Agatha Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire II degree.

Her most famous novels are: Murder in the Vicarage, N or M?, Ten Little Indians, The Mystery of Fireplaces, Death on the Nile, Memorial Day, Five Little Pigs, Death in the Clouds. and etc.

AGATHA CHRISTIE

“I'm just a fantastic sausage production line,” Agatha Christie said about herself in an interview. She meant, of course, her prolific writing, not the quality of her work. The best evidence of quality is the love of readers: to date, more than two billion of her books have been sold. The "Queen of the Detective" managed to make a fabulous fortune on murders without committing a single crime.

The father of the virtuoso English writer was an American. Born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, she was born, raised and had a truly English upbringing in sea ​​coast in the town of Torquay, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of her chief literary role models, composed The Hound of the Baskervilles. Her mother awakened her interest in writing when she once asked her to come up with a story to pass a rainy day.

In 1914, Agatha married Archibald Christie, a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. During the First World War, she worked as a nurse in a hospital. There, Christie acquired a deep knowledge of poisons and how they affect the human body. "Give me a cute, deadly vial instead of a toy - I'm happy," she once said. Indeed, about half of the murders that occur in her novels are poisonings.

After the end of the war, Christie worked on her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, for almost a year and a half. Here, for the first time, the chubby Belgian detective Hercule Poirot appears before readers. However, the book sold at such a snail's pace that the writer did not earn a penny from the percentage of sales. Six years later, when The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published, everything changed overnight. Original plot twists and a striking denouement revolutionized the sedate and measured detective genre. And off we go! Christie has written and published ninety-three books and seventeen plays, including six romance novels created under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Her works have been translated into 103 languages ​​(in this matter, she even overtook Shakespeare). In addition to Poirot in the list of her most famous characters the stubborn English old lady Miss Jane Marple, the enigmatic Colonel Race and the indefatigable married couple of detectives Tuppence and Tommy Beresford appear.

Christie's crime and investigative novels invariably had a graceful and English neat ending. But in the personal life of the writer, everything was by no means so smooth. Her first marriage ended in divorce in 1928 when she found out that Archie was cheating on her. In 1930, Agatha married again, this time to the archaeologist Max Mallowan, who ... also cheated on her. Despite this, they managed to stay together for forty-five years, during which Agatha often traveled with her husband to excavations in Iraq and Syria. In these exotic oriental scenery, she created several books.

In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. She was also awarded the title of Dame of the Order of the British Empire (1971). Many of her novels were filmed in the form of films and television films - and most of these adaptations, according to Agatha herself, were completely useless. She did, however, approve of Murder on the Orient Express (1974); Actor Albert Finney, who played the role of Poirot in this production, was nominated for an Oscar. Undoubtedly, the writer would be very surprised to see Agatha Christie's Great Detectives, an anime series that aired in 2004 on the Japanese channel NHK and in which the writers added a love line between two of the most famous detectives - Poirot and Miss Marple. Be that as it may, this series, where the classic characters of Agatha Christie take on new look and where several new characters appear (including a talking duck), proves that the works of the "Queen of the Detective" have not been erased from people's memory.

Agatha Christie died in 1976, enjoying the title of the world's most famous mystery writer. Guinness World Records Names Agatha Christie 'Best Selling' Author fiction all times and peoples. Her play "The Mousetrap", first staged in London in 1952 and still present in the repertoire of the same theater, is recognized as the most "long-playing" production in the world. Not too bad for a "sausage assembly line" and a woman who took up literature only because she thought, "It must be fun to try and write a detective story."

VICTIMS OF CARPIST SYNDROME?

Despite her reputation as one of the most prolific writers in the history of literature, Agatha Christie has never touched pen to paper in her life. She suffered from dysgraphia, a writing disorder, so she wrote with great difficulty. Christie had to dictate her novels. One can only hope that her typist, in addition to her salary, also received “combat” ones.

THE 1907 WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD BY PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS IS RECEIVED…

In her youth, Christie considered herself a good housewife and was very proud of it. In her autobiography, she described how she once deftly chloroformed a hedgehog entangled in a tennis net in order to free it.

AGATA AND "THE BAD WORD"

One of Agatha Christie's most popular books, And There Were None, has been filmed multiple times and spawned many theatrical productions. It was the inspiration for a television movie, a parody musical, and a song written by popular 1970s singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson. How? Have you ever heard of such a novel? This is not surprising, because earlier it was published under a different name - "Ten Little Indians". Later, due to political incorrectness, the book was renamed "Ten Little Indians", and when this name was no longer considered correct, the book began to be republished under the title "And There Were None".

Pitiful fat Belgian freak

The imperturbable Hercule Poirot (whose surname, according to one version, comes from the French word meaning "simple") is one of the literary detectives most beloved by readers. The writer herself did not at all lead the ranks of his admirers. Having dedicated her second novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), to the pompous Belgian, Agatha Christie soon got tired of him. In the 1930s, she stated that she found Poirot unbearable. And in the 1960s she ridiculed him as a "self-centered hypocrite." However, Poirot helped her pay the bills all along. "I can't stand him," Christie once stated, "but I have to keep writing about him because that's what readers want."

Despite her dislike, Agatha Christie zealously defended the image of Poirot. When The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was going to be staged in the theater and the director offered to “refresh” her character by “cutting off Poirot for twenty years, calling him Handsome Poirot and surrounding girls in love with him,” the writer strongly opposed this.

MAYBE SHE JUST READ THE SCRIPT?

Another popular Christie heroine, the elderly detective Miss Jane Marple, liked her creator much more. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are portrayed as Milo Perrier and Jessica Marbles in the 1976 parody detective story Dinner with Murder, based on the script by the famous American playwright Neil Simon. Unfortunately, Agatha Christie never lived to see the premiere.

SCABIES ON THE ORIENTAL EXPRESS

One of her most famous novels, Murder on the Orient Express, was written by Agatha Christie in room 411 of the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. Now this room is called the “Agatha Christie Room”, guests are no longer accommodated there, and the room is preserved in the form in which it was when the great writer stayed there. The journey from Paris to Istanbul, which Christie herself made on the Orient Express, was not so cloudless, and she preferred to omit some details in her book. Bed bugs pestered her all the way.

I DIDN'T SAY THIS!

Although Agatha Christie loved aphorisms, the phrase most often attributed to her is: best husband, which only a woman can dream of, is an archaeologist. The older the woman gets, the more infatuated he is with her,” she never really said. Her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, clearly wasn't all that keen. He changed a whole string of mistresses, and married one of them just a year after Agatha's death.

AGATA CHRISTIE SUFFERED WITH DYSGRAPHY AND THEREFORE I ALWAYS COULD NOT WRITE BY HAND. ALL HER NOVELS WERE DICCTATED.

The most big secret associated with Agatha Christie lies not in her works, but in her biography. In December 1926, the thirty-six-year-old writer mysteriously disappeared for eleven days. The police suspected that Christie was the victim of some kind of crime, but her walking hubby Archibald Christie had an ironclad alibi. During the disappearance of his wife, he was in the arms of his mistress. On a tip from a sly waiter, the police found Agatha in a Yorkshire hotel. She was staying there under an assumed name. At first, Christie pretended to suffer from amnesia, but many years later it turned out that this incident was part of a plan drawn up by an angry Agatha to take her husband away from her mistress. However, whatever her true intentions, the idea failed. The couple divorced two years later. Released in 1979, Agatha, starring Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha and Timothy Dalton (one of the James Bonds) as Archie, is the story of that strange event brought to the screen.

THANK YOU FOR THE CLARIFICATION

In her autobiography, Agatha Christie listed in detail what she loves and what she doesn't. The list of things that caused the most irritation included: “crowds; when I am squeezed among people; loud voices; noise; long conversations; parties, especially cocktail parties; cigarette smoke and smoking in general; any alcoholic beverages, except for their use in cooking; marmalade; oysters; slightly warm food; bird's paws or even the whole bird" - and, most importantly, "the taste and smell of hot milk."