In St. Mary's Churchyard, Cholsey, Berkshire, forty seven miles west of London, lies Lady Mallowan-" DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE" she was known to millions of people throughout the world as the Queen of Crime or as she preferred, the Duchess of Death.
Agatha Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay in England. Her father was called Frederick Miller so she was born as Agatha Miller. In 1914 she married Archie Christie, but then World War I had broken out. Agatha worked in a hospital at that time and that experience was useful later on. Her first book was published in 1920, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" it was based partly on Agatha Christie's own nursing experirence and Styles was a replica of Torquay. The novel gave an illuminating picture of Britain recovering from the "Great War" of 1914-18 and though she said that she disliked desciptive writing Styles proved to have anaccurate eye for recording social history . There, readers met Hercule Poirot, the eccentric Belgian detective with the funny-looking moustache. But Agatha's books first attracted attention in 1926 when she publised The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (which, by the way has, besides being published in a newspaper in 1938 in Icelandic, has been published as a book three tim.
Agatha made news herself when she disappeared for a few days after her husband wanted a divorce. She was soon found to be staying in a hotel under an alias. Her disappearance is still a mystery! After the divorce she married a British archaeologist, Max Mallowan. She wrote nearly seventy novels in her career and more than a hundred short stories. Her most famous characters are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote a few books about Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, and in some books there was no particular main character, e.g. in Ten Little Niggers. Agatha's plays have also made her famous and her best known play, The Mousetrap, is most likely the best known mystery play in the world. Agatha Christie died in 1976.
The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot first appeared in 1920 in Agatha Christie's first novel "The Mysterious Affair at Styles". Agatha later wrote numerous books about him and the last one was published in 1975 - Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. Poirot has many characteristics which have made him a legend all over the world - the odd moustache, the egg-shaped face and his high opinion of himself. He will though most likely be best remembered for his ability to solve complicated mysteries with the help of his little grey cells. In that area he was a worthy successor of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Poirot is probably Agatha Christie's best-known character - and he has of course often appeared in films, portrayed by various actors. Albert Finney played him in The Murder on the Orient Express and Peter Ustinov has also played Poirot in many movies, such as Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun. Many fans of Poirot do though agree that David Suchet (from the Poirot TV series) is most likely the actor who has succeeded best in portraying the famous detective. Hercule Poirot has even become so famous as an independent character that Anne Hart, a librarian in Newfoundland has written his biography, The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot. Anne Hart has also written Jane Marple's biography. But Poirot was not always alone - in Christie's early Poirot stories Captain Arthur Hastings tried to help him - but always seemed to miss the clues that were of importance.
In Poirot's later adventures Hastings was not such a frequent guest but Poirot also had other friends such as Ariadne Oliver (the mystery writer) and Detective Inspector (Chief Inspector) Japp. Austin Trevor was the first one to play Hercule Poirot in three movies in the early thirties (Alibi, Black Coffee, Lord Edgware Dies). Tony Randall played Poirot in one picture in 1965, The Alphabet Murders. In 1974 another unusual Poirot appeared - Albert Finney - in the Academy Award winning movie The Murder on the Orient Express, where the suspects where played by world famous actors Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud and Lauren Bacall. In 1978 Peter Ustinov played Poirot in Death on the Nile, and has since then appeard in the role of Hercule Poirot in several movies, such as Evil Under the Sun, Appointment with Death and a few TV-movies.
The latest chapter in the history of the little man with the moustache started in 1989 when David Suchet's brilliant performance convinced fans that he was the one and only Poirot.
Agatha Christie's Miss Marple first appeared in the novel The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. She was then already rather old but nevertheless managed to lead a happy live on the pages of Christie's books until 1979 (Miss Marple's Final Cases). She is an English spinster and lives in the Englissh village of St. Mary Mead and is not a likely detective but always succeeds where the police have failed. Instead of using a magnifying glass looking for clues she uses her instinct and knowledge of human nature, or as Marple once said: "Human nature is the same everywhere." Agatha Christie wrote a dozen Miss Marple books, The Murder at the Vicarage, The Body in the Library, The Moving Finger, A Murder is Announced, They Do it with Mirrors, A Pocketful of Rye, 4.50 from Paddington, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, A Caribbean Mystery, At Bertram's Hotel, Nemesis and Sleeping Murder.
Agatha also wrote several short stories about Marple. Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple in a few movies in the sixties but Joan Hickson is the most famous Miss Marple and has appeared in many TV series, but she has also played other roles in other Agatha Christie movies. Helen Hayes and Murder She Wrote's Angela Lansbury have also portrayed Marple.
Agatha Christie domesticated murder perhaps no other author had done before or since and transformed it into nothing more perilous than an intrigue game of chess or a satisfactory crossword puzzle. All her life she abhorred violence and blood and constantly confessed that she had no knowledge of the usual implements used for murder. In old age she also admitted that her knowledge she had never met a muderer. "I know nothing about pistols and revolvers, which is why I usually kill off my characters with a blunt instrument or better with poisons. Besides poisons are neat and clean and really excitting... I do not think I could look a really ghastly mangled body in the face. It is the means that I am interested in. I do not usually describe the end, which is often a corpse."
