Agatha Christie has also written romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott and has sometimes been published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan. Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote in Romance, under a pseudonym, 66 crime novels and story collections, 14 plays and six novels. Her books sold more than a billion copies in English and a billion copies in English translation. She remains the most translated individual author, having been translated into at least 103 languages, according to Index Translationum. She is the creator of two of crime literature's most enduring figures—Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple—and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in modern theater history. Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born as the youngest of three in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K. The Millers had two other kids: Margaret Frary Miller (18791950), named Madge, aged eleven, and Louis Montant Miller (18801929), named Monty, ten years older than Agatha. She had served in a Devon hospital during the First World War before marrying and starting a family in London, tending to have troops coming back from the trenches. She worked as a nurse at a hospital during the First World War; later, she worked at a hospital pharmacy, a job that influenced her work, as many of the assassinations in her books are done with poison. During World War II, she worked as a pharmacy assistant at University College Hospital, London, acquiring a good knowledge of poisons in many of her novels. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920. During her first marriage, Agatha published six novels, a collection of short stories, and several short stories in magazines. The couple quarreled on December 8, 1926, and Archie Christie left their house at Sunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend at Godalming, Surrey with his mistress. Agatha disappeared from her home that same evening, leaving her secretary with a letter saying she was going to Yorkshire. Her disappearance has caused a public outcry, many of whom have been admirers of her novels. She was not found for eleven days despite a massive manhunt. In 1930, after joining him in an archeological dig, Christie married archeologist Max Mallowan (Sir Max from 1968). In the early years their marriage was particularly happy and remained so until the death of Christies in 1976. Christie often used familiar settings for her stories. Traveling with Mallowan, Christies contributed background to several of her Middle East novels. In and around Torquay, where she was born, other novels (such as And Then There Were None) were placed. Christies 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express was written at the railway's southern terminus at the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. As a memorial to the author, the hotel maintains the Christies room. The Greenway Estate in Devon, acquired as a summer residence by the couple in 1938, is now in the care of the National Trust. Christie has frequently stayed at Abney Hall in Cheshire, owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts. At least two of her stories were based on the hall: the short story The Christmas Pudding Adventure, and the novel After the Funeral. Abney Hall became Agathas' greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and greatness that were woven into her plots. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honors in 1956 to honor her many literary works. She became the Detection Club's president the following year. Agatha Christie's wikipedia entry... Read More
