《英伦名人八卦堂》－犯罪女王养成记（阿加莎·克里斯蒂）

Famous Brits  (2) – Agatha Christie  阿婆的故事 The Queen of Crime

Prolific writer 高产作家 (1890-1976)

GuinnessWorld Records listsChristie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly2 billion copies.

(According to her estate) her works come third in therankings of the world's most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeare's works and the Bible.

Famous works

The Only crime writer that created two equally successful characters –

－Hercule Poirot  大侦探波洛  －

  “rely on the little gray cells in the brains”(French/Belgian)

－MissMarple  马普尔小姐   

   “One does see so much evil in avillage.”

(modelled on maternal grandmother)

Famousin China

-Murder on the Orient Express 东方快车谋杀案

-Death on the Nile 尼罗河惨案

-And Then There Were None 无人生还

And Then ThereWere None is Christie'sbest-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the world'sbest-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time.

2015 BBCminiseries

A successful play

Christie's stage play The Mousetrap opened in the West End on 25 November 1952, and as of March 2018 is stillrunning after more than 27,000 performances.

West End theatres dimmed their lights for Agatha Christie’s death.

Her inspiration:

Unline many other writers, she was a teetotaller/non-smoker

--Her little notebooks

    she used to write her notes instudents’ exercise books

--Her understanding of poison

   She was trained as a nurse and a pharmacist and hadlifelong interest in poison.

--Archaeology 考古学

   Her second husband was a quitefamous archaeologist.

  “I married an archaeologist, because the older I grow themore he appreciates me.”

The Detection Club (formed in 1930) 英国侦探俱乐部

-      A group of British mysterywriters  

Her disappearance:

-Married her first husband Archie in 1914 (24 years old)

-Found out her husband was cheating on her with another woman in 1926 (Age36)

-December 3, 1926, had a fight with him and disappeared for 10 days

-Her disappearance was featured on the front page of New York Times,many volunteers joined in the search.

-December 14, she reappeared in a hotel in Harrogate (registered underthe surname of her husband’s lover and claimed to have no memory of the tendays.)

-Her autobiography made no referenceto the disappearance, so it remained a mystery.

-She got divorced in 1928 and married again in 1930 to an archaeologist.

Quote:

Very few of us are what we seem.

Check out these videos and texts:

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley (BBC documentary)

Doctor Who episode – The Unicorn and The Wasp (Season 4, Episode 7)

And Then There Were None (BBC miniseries) 2015

Agatha Christie’s SecretNotebooks