From left to right: Agatha Christie, Amelia Earhart,
Aimee Semple McPherson
Agatha Miller grew up a dreamy, imaginative child in Torquay. Schooled at home, she was close to her mother and had many imaginary friends. She thought she might pursue a career as a singer, but a fear of performing put an end to that.
She married the dashingly handsome pilot Archibald Christie in 1914, eloping on Christmas Eve. While Archie was away, flying in the RAF, Agatha took a job working in a hospital dispensary. It was here that she gained her thorough knowledge of poisons.
On a dare from her sister, Agatha wrote her first mystery novel. Taking some vacation time, she holed up in a hotel near Dartmoor, wandering the moors while she worked out the plot of the story. The book, titled The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was rejected by several publishers; finally the book was published in 1920, and became a modest success.
Archie and Agatha were happily married, traveling the world together when Archie took a job assisting a diplomat. They had a daughter, Rosalind, and eventually settled down in somewhat cramped quarters while Archie pursued a career in London. Agatha returned to writing as a way of earning extra money. Her books sold moderately well, but she was only catapulted to fame with the publication of her seventh book, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in 1926. Detective novels were quite popular at the time, and the leading mystery novelists formed “The Detection Club”; each member swore to uphold the rules that required authors to play fair with the reader – no bizarre endings that were impossible to guess, and so on. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd contained a shocking twist – which won’t be revealed here. Critics and readers cried “foul”; author Dorothy L. Sayers defended Agatha, saying “Fair! And fooled you!”
Agatha became a celebrity, just as her personal life was disintegrating. Her mother, Clara, had died; Archie also let it be known that he was having an affair with another woman, Nancy Neele. Agatha began to suffer lapses of memory, sometimes forgetting her own name as she was signing a check.
On December 4, 1926, Agatha drove off in the night, after receiving word from Archie that he and Nancy would be spending the weekend together, staying with friends.
Her car was found abandoned, rolled down an embankment, near a small lake that she had used as a location in one of her stories. There was an immediate uproar as the search got underway. The papers offered rewards for clues to her whereabouts; speculation was rampant that Agatha might have met with foul play – and that her husband may have been involved.
Agatha was found eleven days later, in the Harrogate Hydro, a spa hotel in the north of England. She was registered under the name of Teresa Neele – interestingly, the surname of Archie’s mistress. Once she was retrieved and brought home by Archie, she never spoke or wrote about her disappearance: her autobiography nimbly skips this painful period in her life.
Archie and Agatha subsequently divorced. She later met and married Max Mallowan, an archaeologist specializing in the antiquities of the Middle East. She accompanied him on his digs, taking notes and labeling specimens; she lugged her typewriter along and wrote when not occupied with archaeological tasks.
Max Mallowan inspired one of Agatha’s most repeated quotes (although she didn’t actually say it)
An archaeologist is the perfect sort of husband. As you grow older, he only becomes more interested in you.
Agatha was amazingly prolific as a writer: she published a “Christie for Christmas” nearly every year. She wrote over 80 novels and collections of short stories; her work has been adapted for film, television, radio and the stage.
She died in 1976, still married to Max Mallowan. Her last works, Curtain and Sleeping Murder (the final cases of Poirot and Miss Marple) were published posthomously, as was her autobiography.
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