Agatha_Christie

{{Infobox Writer
| name = Agatha Christie
| image = Agatha Christie in 1937.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1890|9|15|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Torquay]], [[Devon]], [[England]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1976|1|12|1890|9|15|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Cholsey]], [[Oxfordshire]], [[England]]
| occupation = [[Novelist]]
| genre = [[Murder mystery]], [[Crime fiction]]
| movement = [[Golden Age of Detective Fiction]]
| magnum_opus = [[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]]
| influences = [[Edgar Allan Poe]] [[Anna Katherine Green]] [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]
 [[GK Chesterton]]
| influenced = [[Ruth Rendell]], [[P. D. James]]
| website = [http://www.agathachristie.com agathachristie.com]
| footnotes =
}}

'''Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan''', [[Order of the British Empire|DBE]] ([[15 September]] [[1890]] – [[12 January]] [[1976]]), commonly known as '''Agatha Christie''', was an [[English people|English]] [[crime fiction]] writer. She also wrote [[romance novel]]s under the name '''Mary Westmacott''', but is best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her successful [[West End theatre]] plays. Her works, particularly featuring detectives [[Hercule Poirot]] or [[Miss Jane Marple]], have given her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre.

Christie has been called — by the [[Guinness World Records|Guinness Book of World Records]], among others — the best-selling writer of books of all time, and the best-selling writer of any kind together with [[William Shakespeare]]. Only the Bible sold more with about 6 billion copies. An estimated four [[billion]] copies of her novels have been sold.<ref name=number_of_copies_sold>http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117776459.html?categoryid=3&cs=1</ref> [[UNESCO]] states that she is currently the most translated individual author in the world with only the collective corporate works of [[Walt Disney Productions]] superseding her. (See[http://databases.unesco.org/xtrans/stat/xTransStat.a?VL1=A&top=50&lg=0]). As an example of her broad appeal, she is the all-time best-selling author in France, with over 40 million copies sold in [[French language|French]] (as of 2003) versus 22 million for [[Emile Zola]], the nearest contender.

Her [[Play|stage play]], ''[[The Mousetrap]]'', holds the record for the longest initial run in the world, opening at the Ambassadors Theatre in [[London]] on [[25 November]] [[1952]], and as of 2007 is still running after more than 20,000 performances. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the [[Mystery Writers of America]]'s highest honor, the [[Mystery Writers of America#Grand Master Award|Grand Master Award]], and in the same year, ''[[Witness for the Prosecution (play)|Witness for the Prosecution]]'' was given an [[Edgar Award]] by the MWA, for Best Play. Most of her books and [[short story|short stories]] have been filmed, some many times over (''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'', ''[[Death on the Nile]]'', ''[[4.50 From Paddington]]''), and many have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics.

In 1998, the control of the rights to most of the literary works of Agatha Christie passed to the company [[Chorion (company)|Chorion]], when it purchased a majority 64% share in Agatha Christie Limited.<ref>http://www.chorion.co.uk/chorion/brand/christie/</ref>

==Biography==
[[Image:Agatha Christie plaque -Torre Abbey.jpg|thumb|A plaque from the Agatha Christie Mile at [[Torre Abbey]] in [[Torquay]].]]
Agatha Christie was born as '''Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller''' in [[Torquay]], [[Devon]], to an [[United States|American]] father and an [[England|English]] mother. She never claimed [[United States]] citizenship. Her father was Frederick Alvah Miller, a rich American stockbroker, and her mother was Clarissa Margaret Boehmer, the daughter of a British army captain<ref>Morgan, Janet. ''Agatha Christie, A Biography''. (Page 2) Collins, 1984 ISBN 0-00-216330-6</ref>. Christie had a sister, Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, eleven years her senior, and a brother, Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Christie. Her father died when she was eleven years old. Her mother taught her at home, encouraging her to write at a very young age. At the age of 16 she went to Mrs Dryden's finishing school in Paris to study singing and piano.<ref>http://www.sfu.ca/english/Gillies/Engl38301/christiebio.html</ref>

Her first marriage, an unhappy one, was in 1914 to [[Colonel]] Archibald Christie, an aviator in the [[Royal Flying Corps]]. The couple had one daughter, [[Rosalind Hicks]], and divorced in 1928. It was during this marriage that she published her first novel in 1920, ''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]]''.

During [[World War I]] she worked at a hospital and then a pharmacy, a job that influenced her work; many of the murders in her books are carried out with [[poison]].

On [[8 December]] [[1926]], while living in [[Sunningdale]] in [[Berkshire]], she disappeared for ten days, causing great interest in the press. Her car was found in a chalk pit in [[Newland's Corner]], [[Surrey]]. She was eventually found staying at the Swan Hydro (now the Old Swan hotel) in [[Harrogate]] under the name of the woman with whom her husband had recently admitted to having an affair. She claimed to have suffered a [[nervous breakdown]] and a [[fugue state]] caused by the death of her mother and her husband's infidelity. Opinions are still divided as to whether this was a [[publicity stunt]]. Public sentiment at the time was negative, with many feeling that an alleged publicity stunt had cost the taxpayers a substantial amount of money. A 1979 film, ''[[Agatha (film)|Agatha]]'', starring [[Vanessa Redgrave]] as Christie, recounted a fictionalised version of the disappearance.

In 1930, Christie married the [[Archaeology|archaeologist]] [[Max Mallowan|Sir Max Mallowan]]. Mallowan was 14 years younger than Christie, and a [[Roman Catholic]], while she was of the [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] faith. Their marriage was happy in the early years, and endured despite Mallowan's many affairs in later life, notably with [[Barbara Parker]], whom he married in 1977, the year after Christie's death.

Christie's travels with Mallowan contributed background to several of her novels set in the [[Middle East]]. Other novels (such as ''[[And Then There Were None]]'') were set in and around [[Torquay]], [[Devon]], where she was born. Christie's 1934 novel, ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'' was written in the [[Pera Palas]] [[hotel]] in [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]], the southern terminus of the railroad. The hotel maintains Christie's room as a memorial to the author. The [[Greenway Estate]] in Devon, acquired by the couple as a summer residence in 1938, is now in the care of the [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]]. Christie often stayed at [[Abney Hall]] in Cheshire, which was owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts. She based at least two of her stories on the hall: The short story ''The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding'' which is in the ''[[The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding|story collection]]'' of the same name and the novel ''[[After the Funeral]]''. "Abney became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots. The descriptions of the fictional Styles, Chimneys, Stoneygates and the other houses in her stories are mostly Abney in various forms."<ref>Agatha Christie: A Readers Companion - Vanessa Wagstaff and Stephen Poole, Aurum Press Ltd. 2004. Page 14. ISBN 1 84513 015 4.</ref>

[[Image:AgathaChristie.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Agatha Christie's room at the Pera Palas hotel where she wrote ''Murder on the Orient Express''.]]

In 1971 she was made a [[Order of the British Empire|Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]].

Agatha Christie died on [[12 January]] [[1976]], at age 85, from natural causes, at [[Winterbrook]] House in the north of [[Cholsey]] [[civil parish|parish]], adjoining [[Wallingford]] in [[Oxfordshire]] (formerly Berkshire). She is buried in the nearby St Mary's Churchyard in Cholsey.

Christie's only child, Rosalind Hicks, died on [[28 October]] [[2004]], also aged 85, from natural causes. Christie's grandson, Mathew Pritchard, was heir to the copyright to some of his grandmother's literary work (including ''[[The Mousetrap]]'') and is still associated with Agatha Christie Limited.

==Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple==
Agatha Christie's first novel ''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]]'' was published in 1920 and introduced the long-running character detective [[Hercule Poirot]], who appeared in 30 of Christie's novels and 50 short stories.

Her other well known character, [[Miss Marple]], was introduced in ''[[The Murder at the Vicarage]]'' in 1930, and was based on Christie's grandmother.

During [[World War II]], Christie wrote two novels intended as the last cases of these two great detectives, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, respectively. They were [[Curtain (novel)|''Curtain'']] and ''[[Sleeping Murder]]''. Both books were sealed in a bank vault for over thirty years, and were released for publication by Christie only at the end of her life, when she realised that she could not write any more novels. These publications came on the heels of the success of the film version of ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'' in 1974.

Like [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], Christie was to become increasingly tired of her detective, Poirot. In fact, by the end of the 1930s, Christie confided to her diary that she was finding Poirot “insufferable”, and by the 1960s she felt that he was an "an ego-centric creep". However, unlike Conan Doyle, Christie resisted the temptation to kill her detective off while he was still popular. She saw herself as an entertainer whose job was to produce what the public liked, and what the public liked was Poirot.

In contrast, Christie was fond of Miss Marple. However it is interesting to note that the [[Belgium|Belgian]] detective’s titles outnumber the Marple titles by more than two to one.

Poirot is the only fictional character to have been given an obituary in ''[[The New York Times]]'', following the publication of ''Curtain'' in 1975.

Following the great success of ''Curtain'', Christie gave permission for the release of ''Sleeping Murder'' sometime in 1976, but died in January 1976 before the book could be released. This may explain some of the inconsistencies in the book with the rest of the [[Miss Marple|Marple series]] — for example, Colonel Arthur Bantry, husband of Miss Marple's friend, Dolly, is still alive and well in ''Sleeping Murder'' (which, like ''Curtain'', was written in the 1940s) despite the fact he is noted as having died in books that were written after but published before the posthumous release of ''Sleeping Murder'' in 1976—such as, ''The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side''. It may be that Christie simply did not have time to revise the manuscript before she died. Miss Marple fared better than Poirot, since after solving the mystery in ''Sleeping Murder'', she returns home to her regular life in [[Saint Mary Mead]].

On an edition of [[Desert Island Discs]] in 2007, [[Brian Aldiss]] recounted how Agatha Christie told him that she wrote her books up to the last chapter, and then decided who the most unlikely suspect was. She would then go back and make the necessary changes to "frame" that person. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20070128.shtml]

==In popular culture==
*Christie has been portrayed on a number of occasions in film and television:
** By [[Vanessa Redgrave]] in the 1979 film ''Agatha''
** By Hilda Gobbi in a 1980 Hungarian film, ''Kojak Budapesten''
** By [[Peggy Ashcroft]] in a 1986 TV play, ''Murder by the Book''
** By Esme Lambert in ''[[The Dead Zone]]'' episode "Unreasonable Doubt", transmitted on [[July 14]], [[2002]].
** By [[Olivia Williams]] in a 2004 [[BBC television]] programme entitled ''[[Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures]]''
** By [[Aya Sugimoto]] in a 2006 episode of a Japanese television series called ''Hyakunin no Ijin'' in 2006.

* A [[precog]] in the movie [[Minority Report (film)|Minority Report]] is named after her.
*The play [[Murder By Indecision]] parodies Christie with the character Agatha Crispy.

==List of works==
===Novels===
{| class="wikitable"
!Year published!!Title!!Detectives
|-
|1920||''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Arthur Hastings]] [[Chief Inspector Japp]]
|-
|1922||''[[The Secret Adversary]]''||[[Tommy and Tuppence]]
|-
|1923||''[[Murder on the Links|The Murder on the Links]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Arthur Hastings]]
|-
|1924||''[[The Man in the Brown Suit]]''||Anne Beddingfeld [[Colonel Race]]
|-
|1925||''[[The Secret of Chimneys]]''||[[Superintendent Battle]]
|-
|1926||''[[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1927||[[The Big Four (novel)|''The Big Four'']]||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Arthur Hastings]] [[Chief Inspector Japp]]
|-
|1928||''[[The Mystery of the Blue Train]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1929||''[[The Seven Dials Mystery]]''||Bill Eversleigh [[Superintendent Battle]]
|-
|1930||''[[The Murder at the Vicarage]]''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1931||''[[The Sittaford Mystery]]'' also ''Murder at Hazelmoor''||Emily Trefusis
|-
|1932||''[[Peril at End House]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Arthur Hastings]] [[Chief Inspector Japp]]
|-
|1933||''[[Lord Edgware Dies]]'' also ''Thirteen at Dinner''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Arthur Hastings]] [[Chief Inspector Japp]]
|-
|1934||''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'' also ''Murder in the Calais Coach''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1934||''[[Why Didn't They Ask Evans?]]'' also ''The Boomerang Clue''||
|-
|1935||''[[Three Act Tragedy]]'' also ''Murder in Three Acts''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1935||''[[Death in the Clouds]]'' also ''Death in the Air''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Chief Inspector Japp]]
|-
|1936||''[[The A.B.C. Murders]]'' also ''The Alphabet Murders''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Arthur Hastings]] [[Chief Inspector Japp]]
|-
|1936||''[[Murder in Mesopotamia]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1936||''[[Cards on the Table]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Colonel Race]] [[Superintendent Battle]] [[Ariadne Oliver]]
|-
|1937||''[[Dumb Witness]]'' also ''Poirot Loses a Client'' also ''Mystery at Littlegreen House'' also ''Murder at Littlegreen House''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Arthur Hastings]]
|-
|1937||''[[Death on the Nile]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Colonel Race]]
|-
|1938||''[[Appointment with Death]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1938||''[[Hercule Poirot's Christmas]]'' also ''Murder for Christmas'' also ''A Holiday for Murder''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1939||''[[Murder is Easy]]'' also ''Easy to Kill''||[[Superintendent Battle]]
|-
|1939||''[[And Then There Were None]]'' also ''Ten Little Indians'' also ''Ten Little Niggers''||
|-
|1940||''[[Sad Cypress]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1940||''[[One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (novel)|One, Two, Buckle My Shoe]]'' also ''An Overdose of Death'' also ''The Patriotic Murders''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Chief Inspector Japp]]
|-
|1941||''[[Evil Under the Sun]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1941||''[[N or M?]]''||[[Tommy and Tuppence]]
|-
|1942||''[[The Body in the Library]]''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1942||''[[Five Little Pigs]]'' also ''Murder in Retrospect''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1942||''[[The Moving Finger]]'' also ''The Case of the Moving Finger''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1944||''[[Towards Zero]]'' also ''Come and Be Hanged''||[[Superintendent Battle]] Inspector James Leach
|-
|1944||''[[Death Comes as the End]]''||
|-
|1945||''[[Sparkling Cyanide]]'' also ''Remembered Death''||[[Colonel Race]]
|-
|1946||''[[The Hollow]]'' also ''Murder After Hours''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1948||''[[Taken at the Flood]]'' also ''There is a Tide''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1949||''[[Crooked House]]''||Charles Hayward
|-
|1950||''[[A Murder is Announced]]''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1951||''[[They Came to Baghdad]]''||Victoria Jones
|-
|1952||''[[Mrs McGinty's Dead]]'' also ''Blood Will Tell''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Ariadne Oliver]]
|-
|1952||''[[They Do It with Mirrors]]'' also ''Murder with Mirrors''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1953||''[[After the Funeral]]'' also ''Funerals are Fatal'' also ''Murder at the Gallop''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1953||''[[A Pocket Full of Rye]]''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1954||[[Destination Unknown (novel)|''Destination Unknown'']] also ''So Many Steps to Death''||
|-
|1955||[[Hickory Dickory Dock (novel)|''Hickory Dickory Dock'']] also ''Hickory Dickory Death''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1956||''[[Dead Man's Folly]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Ariadne Oliver]]
|-
|1957||''[[4.50 from Paddington]]'' also ''What Mrs. McGillycuddy Saw'' also ''Murder She Said''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1958||''[[Ordeal by Innocence]]''||
|-
|1959||''[[Cat Among the Pigeons]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1961||[[The Pale Horse (novel)|''The Pale Horse'']]||Inspector Lejeune [[Ariadne Oliver]]
|-
|1962||''[[The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side]]'' also ''The Mirror Crack'd''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1963||[[The Clocks (novel)|''The Clocks'']]||[[Hercule Poirot]]
|-
|1964||''[[A Caribbean Mystery]]''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1965||''[[At Bertram's Hotel]]''||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1966||''[[Third Girl]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Ariadne Oliver]]
|-
|1967||''[[Endless Night]]''||
|-
|1968||[[By the Pricking of My Thumbs (novel)|''By the Pricking of My Thumbs'']]||[[Tommy and Tuppence]]
|-
|1969||''[[Hallowe'en Party]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Ariadne Oliver]]
|-
|1970||''[[Passenger to Frankfurt]]''||
|-
|1971||[[Nemesis (Agatha Christie novel)|''Nemesis'']]||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|1972||''[[Elephants Can Remember]]''||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Ariadne Oliver]]
|-
|1973||''[[Postern of Fate]]'' final Tommy and Tuppence last novel Christie wrote||[[Tommy and Tuppence]]
|-
|1975||[[Curtain (novel)|''Curtain'']] Poirot's last case, written four decades earlier||[[Hercule Poirot]] [[Arthur Hastings]]
|-
|1976||''[[Sleeping Murder]]'' Miss Marple's last case, written four decades earlier||[[Miss Marple]]
|-
|}

===Collections of Short Stories===
* 1924 ''[[Poirot Investigates]]'' (short stories: eleven in the UK, fourteen in the US)
* 1929 ''[[Partners in Crime (short story collection)|Partners in Crime]]'' (fifteen short stories; featuring Tommy and Tuppence)
* 1930 ''[[The Mysterious Mr. Quin]]'' (twelve short stories; introducing Mr. Harley Quin)
* 1932 ''[[The Thirteen Problems]]'' (thirteen short stories; featuring Miss Marple, also known as ''The Tuesday Club Murders'')
* 1933 ''[[The Hound of Death]]'' (twelve short stories - UK only)
* 1934 ''[[The Listerdale mystery]]'' (twelve short stories - UK only)
* 1934 ''[[Parker Pyne Investigates]]'' (twelve short stories; introducing [[Parker Pyne]] and [[Ariadne Oliver]], also known as ''Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective'')
* 1937 ''[[Murder in the Mews]]'' (four novella-length stories; featuring Hercule Poirot, also known as ''Dead Man's Mirror'')
* 1939 ''[[The Regatta Mystery|Regatta Mystery and Other Stories]]'' (nine short stories - US only)
* 1947 ''[[The Labours of Hercules]]'' (twelve short stories; featuring Hercule Poirot)
* 1948 ''[[The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories]]'' (eleven short stories - US only)
* 1950 ''[[Three Blind Mice and Other Stories]]'' (nine short stories - US only)
* 1951 ''[[The Under Dog and Other Stories]]'' (nine short stories - US only)
* 1960 ''[[The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding]]'' (six short stories - UK only)
* 1961 ''[[Double Sin and Other Stories]]'' (eight short stories - US only)
* 1966 ''[[Surprise! Surprise!]]'' (twelve short stories)
* 1971 ''[[The Golden Ball and Other Stories]]'' (fifteen short stories - US only)
* 1974 ''[[Poirot's Early Cases]]'' (eighteen short stories, also known as ''Hercule Poirot's Early Cases'')
* 1979 ''[[Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories]]'' (eight short stories - UK only)
* 1991 ''[[Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories]]'' (eight short stories - UK only)
* 1997 ''[[The Harlequin Tea Set]]'' (nine short stories - US only)
* 1997 ''[[While the Light Lasts and Other Stories]]'' (nine short stories - UK only)

===Novels written as Mary Westmacott===
* 1930 ''[[Giant's Bread]]''
* 1934 ''[[Unfinished Portrait (novel)|Unfinished Portrait]]''
* 1944 ''[[Absent in the Spring]]''
* 1948 ''[[The Rose and the Yew Tree]]''
* 1952 ''[[A Daughter's a Daughter]]''
* 1956 ''[[The Burden (novel)|The Burden]]''

===Plays===
* 1930 ''[[Black Coffee (play)|''Black Coffee'']]''
* 1943 ''[[And Then There Were None (1943 play)|''And Then There Were None'']]''
* 1945 ''[[Appointment with Death (1945 play)|Appointment with Death]]''
* 1946 ''[[Murder on the Nile/Hidden Horizon]]''
* 1951 ''[[The Hollow (play)|The Hollow]]''
* 1951 ''[[A Daughter's a Daughter]]'' (Written in the late 1930's. Performed once. Unpublished and later turned into the 1952 Mary Westmacott novel)
* 1952 ''[[The Mousetrap]]''
* 1953 ''[[Witness for the Prosecution (play)|Witness for the Prosecution]]''
* 1954 ''[[Spider's Web (play)|Spider's Web]]''
* 1958 ''[[Verdict (play)|''Verdict'']]''
* 1958 ''[[The Unexpected Guest (play)|The Unexpected Guest]]''
* 1960 ''[[Go Back for Murder]]''
* 1962 ''[[Rule of Three (play)|Rule of Three]]'' (Comprised of ''Afternoon at the Seaside'', ''The Rats'' and ''The Patient'')
* 1972 ''[[Fiddler's Three]]'' (Originally written as ''Fiddler's Five''. Unpublished.)
* 1973 ''[[Akhnaton (play)|Akhnaton]]'' (Written in 1937)
* 2003 ''[[Chimneys (play)|Chimneys]]'' (Written in 1931, but unperformed for 72 years. Unpublished.)

===Radio Plays===
* 1937 ''[[Yellow Iris (radio play and short story)|Yellow Iris]]'' (Based on the short story of the same name)
* 1947 ''[[Three Blind Mice (radio play and short story)|Three Blind Mice]]'' (Christie's celebrated stage play ''The Mousetrap'' was based on this radio play)
* 1948 ''[[Butter In a Lordly Dish]]''
* 1960 ''[[Personal Call]]'' (A BBC Radio recording of this play is known to exist)

===Television Plays===
* 1937 ''[[Wasp's Nest (Christie TV play)|Wasp's Nest]]'' (Based on the short story of the same name)

===Nonfiction===
* 1946 ''[[Come, Tell Me How You Live]]''
* 1977 ''[[Agatha Christie: An Autobiography]]''

===Other published works===
* 1925 ''[[The Road of Dreams]]'' (Poetry)
* 1965 ''[[Star Over Bethlehem and other stories]]'' (Christian stories and poems)
* 1973 ''[[Poems (Agatha Christie)|Poems]]''

===Co-authored works===
* 1930 ''[[The Scoop and Behind The Screen|Behind The Screen]]''. A radio serial written together with [[Hugh Walpole]], [[Dorothy L. Sayers]], [[Anthony Berkeley]], [[E. C. Bentley]] and [[Ronald Knox]] of the [[Detection Club]]. Published in book form in 1983 in ''The Scoop and Behind The Screen''.
* 1931 ''[[The Scoop and Behind The Screen|The Scoop]]''. A radio serial written together with [[Dorothy L. Sayers]], [[E. C. Bentley]], [[Anthony Berkeley]], [[Freeman Wills Crofts]] and [[Clemence Dane]] of the Detection Club. Published in book form in 1983 in ''The Scoop and Behind The Screen''.
* 1931 ''[[The Floating Admiral]]''. A book written together with [[G. K. Chesterton]], [[Dorothy L. Sayers]] and certain other members of the Detection Club.
* 1956 ''[[Towards Zero]]'' (A West End theatre dramatization of her 1944 novel co-written with Gerard Verner)

==Other works based on Christie's books and plays==

===Plays adapted into novels by Charles Osborne===
* 1998 ''[[Black Coffee (book)|Black Coffee]]''
* 1999 ''[[The Unexpected Guest (book)|The Unexpected Guest]]''
* 2000 ''[[Spider's Web (book)|Spider's Web]]''

===Plays adapted by other authors===
* 1928 [[Alibi (play)|''Alibi'']] (dramatized from her novel ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' by Michael Morton)
* 1936 ''[[Love from a Stranger (play)]]'' (dramatized by [[Frank Vosper]] from her adaptation of her short story ''Philomel Cottage'')
* 1939 ''[[Tea for Three (Christie play)|Tea for Three]]'' (dramatized by Margery Vosper from the short stort ''Accident'')
* 1940 ''[[Peril at End House (play)|Peril at End House]]'' (dramatized from her novel by [[Arnold Ridley]])
* 1949 ''[[Murder at the Vicarage (play)|Murder at the Vicarage]]'' (dramatized from her novel by Moie Charles and Barbara Toy)
* 1977 ''[[Murder at the Vicarage (1977 play)|Murder at the Vicarage]]'' (dramatized from her novel by Leslie Darbon)
* 1981 ''[[Cards on the Table]]'' (dramatized from her novel by Leslie Darbon)
* 1992 ''[[Problem at Pollensa Bay]]''
* 1993 ''[[Murder is Easy]]''
* 2005 ''[[And Then There Were None]]''

===Movie Adaptations===
* 1928 ''[[The Passing of Mr. Quinn]]'' (Based on the short story ''The Coming of Mr. Quin'')
* 1929 ''[[The Secret Adversary#Die Abenteurer GmbH (1929)|Die Abenteurer GmbH]]'' (Based on ''The Secret Adversary'')
* 1931 ''[[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd#Alibi (Film)|Alibi]]'' (Based on the stage play of the same name from the novel ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'')
* 1931 ''[[Black Coffee (Christie film)|Black Coffee]]''
* 1934 ''[[Lord Edgware Dies (film)|Lord Edgware Dies]]''
* 1937 ''[[Love from a Stranger (Film)]]'' (Based on the stage play of the same name from the short story ''Philomel Cottage'')
* 1945 ''[[And Then There Were None (1945 film)|And Then There Were None]]''
* 1947 ''[[Love from a Stranger (Film)]]''
* 1957 ''[[Witness for the Prosecution]]''
* 1960 ''[[Spider's Web (film)]]''
* 1962 ''[[Murder, She Said]]'' (Based on the novel ''4.50 From Paddington'')
* 1963 ''[[Murder at the Gallop]]'' (Based on the novel ''After the Funeral'')
* 1964 ''[[Murder Most Foul]]'' (Based on the novel ''Mrs. McGinty's Dead'')
* 1964 ''[[Murder Ahoy!]]'' (An original movie not based on any of the books, though it borrows some of the elements of ''They Do It with Mirrors'')
* 1965 ''[[Gumnaam|Gumnaam]]'' (uncredited adaptation of ''And Then There Were None''}
* 1966 ''[[And Then There Were None|Ten Little Indians]]''
* 1966 ''[[The Alphabet Murders]]'' (Based on ''The A.B.C. Murders'')
* 1972 ''[[Endless Night]]''
* 1974 ''[[Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)|Murder on the Orient Express]]''
* 1975 ''[[And Then There Were None|Ten Little Indians]]''
* 1978 ''[[Death on the Nile]]''
* 1980 ''[[The Mirror Crack'd]]''
* 1982 ''[[Evil Under the Sun]]''
* 1984 ''[[Ordeal by Innocence]]''
* 1988 ''[[Appointment with Death]]''
* 1987 ''[[Desyat Negrityat]]'' (Ten Little Niggers)
* 1989 ''[[And Then There Were None|Ten Little Indians]]''
{{Miss Marple Murder series}}

===Television Adaptations===
* 1938 ''[[Love from a Stranger (TV)]]'' (Based on the stage play of the same name from the short story ''Philomel Cottage'')
* 1947 ''[[Love from a Stranger (TV)]]''
* 1949 ''[[And Then There Were None|Ten Little Indians]]''
* 1959 ''[[And Then There Were None|Ten Little Indians]]''
* 1970 ''[[Murder at the Vicarage]]''
* 1980 ''[[Why Didn't They Ask Evans?]]''
* 1982 ''[[Spider's Web (TV)]]''
* 1982 ''[[The Seven Dials Mystery]]''
* 1982 ''[[The Agatha Christie Hour]]''
* 1982 ''[[Murder is Easy]]''
* 1982 ''[[The Witness for the Prosecution]]''
* 1983 ''[[The Secret Adversary]]''
* 1983 ''[[Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime|Partners in Crime]]''
* 1983 ''[[A Caribbean Mystery]]''
* 1983 ''[[Sparkling Cyanide]]''
* 1984 ''[[The Body in the Library]]''
* 1985 ''[[Murder with Mirrors]]''
* 1985 ''[[The Moving Finger]]''
* 1985 ''[[A Murder Is Announced]]''
* 1985 ''[[A Pocket Full of Rye]]''
* 1985 ''[[Thirteen at Dinner]]''
* 1986 ''[[Dead Man's Folly]]
* 1986 ''[[Murder in Three Acts]]''
* 1986 ''[[Murder at the Vicarage]]''
* 1987 ''[[Sleeping Murder]]''
* 1987 ''[[At Bertram's Hotel]]''
* 1987 ''[[Nemesis (Christie)|Nemesis]]''
* 1987 ''[[4.50 from Paddington]]''
* 1989 ''[[The Man in the Brown Suit]]''
* 1989 ''[[A Caribbean Mystery]]''
* 1991 ''[[They Do It with Mirrors]]''
* 1992 ''[[The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side]]''
* 1997 ''[[The Pale Horse]]''
* 2001 ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'' very loose adaptation
* 2003 ''[[Sparkling Cyanide]]'' very loose adaptation
* 2004 ''[[The Body in the Library]]'' very loose adaptation
* 2004 ''[[Murder at the Vicarage]]''
* 2004 ''[[Appointment with Death]]''
* 2005 ''[[A Murder is Announced]]''
* 2005 ''[[Sleeping Murder]]''
* 2006 ''[[The Moving Finger]]''
* 2006 ''[[By the Pricking of My Thumbs (novel)|By the Pricking of My Thumbs]]''
* 2006 ''[[The Sittaford Mystery]]''
* 2007 ''[[Hercule Poirot's Christmas]]'' (A French film adaptation)
* 2007 ''[[Towards Zero]]
* 2007 ''[[Nemesis (Christie)|Nemesis]] very loose adaptation
* 2007 ''[[At Bertram's Hotel]] - very loose adaptation
* 2007 ''[[Ordeal by Innocence]]

'''[[Agatha Christie's Poirot|''Agatha Christie's Poirot'' television series]]'''

Episodes include:
* 1990 ''[[Peril at End House]]''
* 1990 ''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]]''
* 1994 ''[[Hercule Poirot's Christmas]]''
* 1995 ''[[Murder on the Links]]''
* 1995 ''[[Hickory Dickory Dock]]''
* 1996 ''[[Dumb Witness]]''
* 2000 ''[[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]]'' very loose adaptation
* 2000 ''[[Lord Edgware Dies]]''
* 2001 ''[[Evil Under the Sun]]''
* 2001 ''[[Murder in Mesopotamia]]''
* 2004 ''[[Five Little Pigs]]''
* 2004 ''[[Death on the Nile]]''
* 2004 ''[[Sad Cypress]]''
* 2004 ''[[The Hollow]]''
* 2005 ''[[The Mystery of the Blue Train]]''
* 2005 ''[[Cards on the Table]]''
* 2005 ''[[Taken at the Flood]]''

===Comics===
[[HarperCollins]] began issuing a series of [[comic strip]] adaptations of Christie's work on [[July 16]] [[2007]].
* 2007 ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'' Adapted by Francois Riviere, Illustrated by [[Solidor]] ([[Jean-François Miniac]]).
* 2007 ''[[Murder on the Links]]'' Adapted by Francois Riviere, Illustrated by Marc Piskic
* 2007 ''[[Death on the Nile]]'' Adapted by Francois Riviere, Illustrated by [[Solidor]] ( [[Jean-François Miniac]]).
* 2007 ''[[The Mystery of the Blue Train]]'' Adapted and illustrated by Marc Piskic
* 2007 ''[[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]]'' Adapted and illustrated by Bruno Lachard
* 2007 ''[[The Secret of Chimneys]]'' Adapted by Francois Riviere, Illustrated by Laurence Suhner
* 2007 ''[[The Man in the Brown Suit]]'' Adapted and illustrated by Alain Paillou
* 2007 ''[[The Big Four (novel)|The Big Four]]'' Adpated by Hichot and illustrated by Bairi

===Video games===
* 1988 ''[[The Scoop (video game)|The Scoop]]'' (published by [[Spinnaker Software]] and [[Telarium]])
* 2005 ''[[Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None]]''
* 2006 ''[[Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express]]''
* 2007 ''[[Death on the Nile]]'' "I-Spy" hidden-object game
* 2007 ''[[Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun]] (announced)''

==Unpublished material==
* Eugenia and Eugenics (stage play)
* The Case of the Caretaker's Wife (Miss Marple short story, published - without Miss Marple - as The Case of the Caretaker)
* The Capture of Cerberus (Poirot short story, completely rewritten and published as The Capture of Cerberus)
* Witchhazel (supernatural short story)
* Snow Upon the Desert (romantic novel)
* The Greenshore Folly (detective novella, featuring Hercule Poirot, expanded into the novel Dead Man's Folly)
* Personal Call (supernatural radio play, featuring Inspector Narracott - a recording is in the British National Sound Archive)
* The Woman and the Kenite (horror: an Italian translation, allegedly transcribed from an Italian magazine of the 1920s, is available on the internet [http://www.malavasi.biz/ac_opere/script/kenita.pdf La moglie del Kenita]
* Butter in a Lordly Dish (horror/detective radio play, adapted from The Woman and the Kenite)
* The Green Gate (supernatural)
* The War Bride (romantic/supernatural)
* The Case of the Dog's Ball (short story, featuring Poirot, expanded to the novel Dumb Witness and related to the short story How Does your Garden Grow?)
* Stronger than Death (supernatural)
* Being So Very Wilful (romantic)
* The Last Seance (stage play)
* Someone at the Window (detective stage play, adapted from the short story The Dead Harlequin)

==Animation==
In 2004, the Japanese broadcasting company [[NHK|Nippon Housou Kyoukai]] turned Poirot and Marple into animated characters in the [[anime]] series ''[[Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple]]'', introducing Mabel West (daughter of Miss Marple's mystery-writer nephew Raymond West, a [[canon (fiction)|canonical]] Christie character) and her duck Oliver as new characters.

==See also==
* [[Plot devices in Agatha Christie's novels]]
* [[Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures]]'' (Her life story in a 2004 BBC drama)
* [[Abney Hall]] (home to her brother-in-law; several books use Abney as their setting)
* [[Greenway Estate]] (Christie's former home in Devon. The grounds are now in the possession of the [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]] and open to the public.

==References==
<div class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>

==Further reading==
===Articles===
*{{citation|last=Knepper|first=Marty S.|title=The Curtain Falls : Agatha Christie's Last Novels|journal=CLUES : A Journal of Detection|volume=23|issue=4|date=Summer 2005|pages=69–84}}
*{{cite news|last=Mann|first=Jessica|title=Taking liberties with Agatha Christie (review of Laura Thompson's ''Agatha Christie: An English Mystery'')|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/09/20/botho116.xml|publisher=''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''|date=[[2007-09-20]]}}
*{{cite news|last=Kerridge|first=Jake|title=The crimes of Agatha Christie (print edition of 6 October 2007: She made murder a parlour game) (review of Laura Thompson's ''Agatha Christie: An English Mystery'')|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/10/11/botho106.xml|publisher=''[[The Daily Telegraph]] (Review)''|date=[[2007-10-11]]|page=24}}

===Books===
*{{cite book|last=Barnard|first=Robert|title=A Talent to Deceive – An Appreciation of Agatha Christie|location=London|publisher=Collins|year=1980|isbn=0002161907}} Reprinted as New York: Mysterious Press, 1987.
*{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Laura|title=Agatha Christie : An English Mystery|location=London|publisher=Headline Review|year=2007|isbn=0755314875}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Commonscat|Agatha Christie}}
* [http://www.all-about-agatha-christie.com All About Agatha Christie: Comprehensive Fan Website]
* [http://www.agathachristie.com/ Official Agatha Christie site]
* [http://www.agathachristie.net/ AgathaChristie.net - unofficial Christie website]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/author/0,,-39,00.html Agatha Christie profile and articles at "The Guardian"]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/marple/christie.html Agatha Christie profile on PBS.ORG]
* [http://flfl.essortment.com/agathachristie_rlxk.htm "Biography of an Author"]
* [http://www.sexualfables.com/poison_pen_letters.php The Disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926]
* {{gutenberg author| id=Agatha+Christie | name=Agatha Christie}}
* [http://www.agathachristie.co.nr The Agatha Christie Appreciation League]

{{Agatha Christie}}


</s>

{{Persondata
|NAME=Christie, Agatha Mary
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Lady Mallowan
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=British author
|DATE OF BIRTH={{birth date|1890|9|15|df=y}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Torquay]], [[Devon]], [[England]]
|DATE OF DEATH={{death date|1976|1|12|df=y}}
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Wallingford]], [[Oxfordshire]], [[England]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christie, Agatha}}
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1976 deaths]]
[[Category:Agatha Christie|*]]
[[Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Edgar Award winners]]
[[Category:English crime fiction writers]]
[[Category:English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English mystery writers]]
[[Category:English short story writers]]
[[Category:English women writers]]
[[Category:Female wartime nurses]]
[[Category:People from Berkshire (before 1974)]]
[[Category:People from Sunningdale]]
[[Category:People from Torquay]]

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