Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (née Miller), later Lady Mallowan, was a British author renowned for her detective novels, short stories, and plays. Best known for creating the iconic fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, Christie wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections. She also authored The Mousetrap, the world’s longest-running play, which has been performed in London’s West End since 1952.

Christie was born in Torquay, Devon, into a wealthy upper-middle-class family and was largely educated at home. She began reading by age four despite her mother’s belief that children should not read until eight. Her early education included music, and she studied piano and mandolin but abandoned aspirations of a professional music career. After brief formal education at Miss Guyer’s Girls’ School in Torquay, she attended boarding schools in Paris, focusing on voice and piano, before returning to England.

In 1907–1908, Christie and her ailing mother spent several months in Egypt, where Christie attended social events but showed little interest in archaeology, a field that later influenced her work. Back in England, she became involved in amateur theatrics and began writing. Her literary breakthrough came in 1920 with The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing Hercule Poirot.

During both World Wars, Christie worked in hospital dispensaries, gaining extensive knowledge of poisons that enriched her mystery writing. Her personal life included two marriages: first to Archibald Christie in 1914, with whom she had a daughter before their divorce in 1928, and then to archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930. With Mallowan, she spent significant time in the Middle East, experiences that informed many of her novels.

In 1926, following her mother’s death and her first marriage’s collapse, Christie briefly went missing, attracting significant public attention.

Christie passed away on 12 January 1976 at age 85 at her home, Winterbrook House. She was buried in St. Mary’s churchyard, Cholsey, alongside a plot chosen with her second husband. Two West End theatres dimmed their lights in her honor. Upon Mallowan’s death in 1978, he was buried beside her.

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