Agatha Christie is one of the best known writers of her kind. She was “The Queen of Crime” writing and, after all that time, she still remains the one everybody knew in our days as well. Born on September 15, 1890, in Torquai, Devon, England, she dies, at 85, on January 12, 1976.
She was married to Max Mallowan and had one child, Rosalind Hicks. She started writing when she was 30 years old, and continued writing until 1976, just a while before she died. Until 2006 her books have sold over two billion copies. Agatha Christie was named, among others, the Guinness Book of World Records best-selling author.
Awards
She was very well known for her police/thriller novels. She was more or less influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Anna Katherine Green, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and G. K. Chesterton. It was not only her who managed to get something from someone, but also the one that inspired so many others: Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Robert Barnard and so on. On her real name, Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, born Miller, also wrote love novels, under the pseudonym, Mary Westmacott. These novels didn’t catch the eye of the public as much as her other novels did.
The writer was also named “The Most Sold Writer of all Times” by the Guiness Book of World Records, along Shakespeare. She is considered by UNESCO to be the author with the biggest number of translations of all times, being translated in over 56 languages, exceled only by Walt Disney Productions.
Until 2006, her books were counting a number of over 2000 million around the world. She is the author of 80 novels and 19 theatre shows, translated in over 70 languages.
Agatha Christie’s first novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” was published in 1920 and introduces the character of detective Hercule Poirot, who is yet to appear in 33 other novels and 54 short stories of the same author. Here is a little something about ten of her most popular books in which our hero is almost always present:
Read more:
- Top Ten Agatha Christie Books 10th-7th
- Top Ten Agatha Christie Books 6th-4th
- Top Ten Agatha Christie Books 3rd-1st