Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) was an English novelist and playwright celebrated for her ingenious mystery plots and the fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, Devon, she was educated largely at home and developed an early love of reading. During the First World War, she worked as a volunteer nurse and later in a hospital dispensary, gaining knowledge of poisons that informed her detective fiction. Official Agatha Christie biography

Her first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), introduced Poirot and launched a career spanning more than five decades. Known as the “Queen of Crime,” Christie wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections, as well as plays and six novels under the name Mary Westmacott. Her celebrated works include And Then There Were None, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and The Mousetrap. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971 and died on January 12, 1976, at age 85. Official Agatha Christie biography