Agatha Christie - Find out more about the life of Agatha Christie

Contact Details

holiday@torbay.gov.uk
Tel: 01803 211 211

Listen using ReadSpeaker

Agatha Christie Fact File

Born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on 15th September 1890 in Torquay.
She was christened in All Saints Church Torre, Torquay where visitors can view a copy of her baptism certificate.
Agatha Christie never went to school but was educated at home by her mother and a succession of governesses.
In her late teens she studied to be a classical musician but was too nervous to perform.
On 13th April 1917 she qualified as a dispenser in Torquay, thus acquiring her knowledge of poisons.
Her first book waited 5 years before publication having been rejected by 6 publishers.
'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' earned her the princely sum of Â£25.
She is the best selling writer of books of all time with one billion books published in the English language and a further one billion published in 45 other languages.
Christie felt a great deal more affection for her Miss Marple character than she did for Hercule Poirot.
She is the only female dramatist ever to have had 3 plays running simultaneously in London's West End.
In 1922 she travelled around the world.
The Mousetrap began its West End run on 25th November 1952 with Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim in the original cast. With nearly 23,000 performances it is of course the longest running play of all time. Audiences are traditionally invited never to reveal the identity of the killer.
She wrote 6 romantic novels under the name Mary Westmacott.
When he died, Hercule Poirot was given a full-page obituary in the New York Times.
Her home in Devon, Greenway House, was requisitioned by the U.S. Navy during the Second World War. To this day an emotive frieze, painted by one of the naval officers, remains on the walls of her library.
For many years she set and corrected an essay competition for the pupils of the local school in Galmpton Devon.
She has a rose named after her.
She was a teetotaller and non-smoker.
On the day she died the West End theatres dimmed their lights for one hour.
Miss Marple was modelled on her maternal grandmother
She made endless notes in dozens of notebooks jotting down ideas, plots and characters as they came to her.
After seeing Joan Hickson in Murder on the Nile in 1946 she wrote to her hoping that 'one day you will play my Miss Marple'.
One of her life's passions was music especially the operas of Wagner.
In 1931 she read one of her own stories on BBC radio.
Her work on archaeological digs led to her becoming an expert photographer.
When Penguin paperbacks were launched in 1935 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' was one of the first 10 titles.
She accepted the Presidency of the famous Detection Club in 1958 on the strict understanding that she would never have to make a speech.
The Mary Westmacott pseudonym remained a secret for almost 20 years.
She never allowed any representation of Poirot to appear on book jackets.
In 1961 she was conferred with an honorary degree from Exeter University.
Agatha Christie's name has appeared every day for the last 53 years in every newspaper with a West End theatre listing.
Looking back over her life as an author she said that, whilst the characters she created were fictitious, the settings were always real.
Of her own work her favourite play was 'Witness for the Prosecution'.
She wrote her Autobiography over a period of 15 years: 1950 - 1965.
Her last public appearance was at the 1974 premiere of Murder on the Orient Express.
Agatha Christie and her novels have been a 'Mastermind' subject on 3 occasions.
In 1972 she was immortalised in Madame Tussauds.
In 1990 a bronze bust of her was unveiled by her daughter on Carey Green in Torquay, the only one in the world.