Christie's early education was at home where her mother encouraged her to write. She studied music in Paris and became an accomplished pianist, but she preferred a literary career. She married Archibald Christie, A Royal Flying Corps officer, in 1914 and during the war worked in a Red Cross hospital. Her time in the hospital dispensary gave her knowledge of poisons which she would later use to good effect in many of her novels. She published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920 in which she introduced her ever-popular detective, Hercule Poirot. Christie divorced in 1926; her husband having fallen in love with another woman. Obviously disturbed, Christie disappeared for a while causing a mild uproar in the press and led to her husband offering a reward for news of her whereabouts. She was found some weeks later, claiming to have had amnesia. In 1930, Christie introduced her other famous sleuth, Miss Jane Marple, in The Murder at the Vicarage Her works were immensely popular and successful and provided for her complete financial independence. In 1930, she married Max Mallowan, a young archaeologist who she accompanied on many of his trips to the Middle East. During the Second World War, she once again worked in a hospital dispensary. Christie was a prolific writer, producing plays, short stories and over 70 novels. In 1971, she was made a Dame of the British Empire. Her best-known works include The Man in the Brown Suit (1924), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on the Nile (1937), Ten Little Niggers (1939), A Murder is Announced (1950), The Mousetrap (1952), Witness for the Prosecution (1954), The Pale Horse (1961), Passenger to Frankfurt (1970) and An Autobiography(1977). |
