“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.”
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
Born Agatha Miller to a wealthy upper class family in Britain, she was home schooled and served as a volunteer nurse during the First World War. She married Archibald Christie in 1913, but they were divorced in 1926. Although she began to write during this period it was not until the publication of her first novel featuring Hercule Poirot that she enjoyed popular success. She went on to create several other characters, such as Miss Jane Marple, who have become staples of English crime literature and, more recently, the PBS series Mystery. Christie’s stage play, The Mousetrap, began its unequalled run in 1952 and is still running today. She is the most published novelist in history and trails only Shakespeare and the Bible in the number of books sold. She was made Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 1972 and has won every literary award in her genre. She had a lifelong interest in archeology, which she frequently pursued with her second husband Sir Max Mallowan.
