HAPPY BIRTHDAY – Agatha Christie, born 15 September 1890
“Good advice is almost certain to be ignored, but that’s no reason not to give it.”
Agatha Christie
She is the world’s best-selling novelist, her play The Mousetrap has broken all performance records, and she is seen as the ‘Queen of Crime’. Agatha Christie was a phenomenon!
Her books are of remarkably even quality, considering that she wrote so many of them. I prefer those that feature Hercule Poirot – I love the way he gathers all the possible suspects together at the end, explains how the crime was done and points out the murderer. However, the Miss Marple novels are usually excellent too, and there is some fun to be had with Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. I’m not keen on the books she published under the name of Mary Westmacott.
Most of her novels have been filmed, some of them extremely well – I think the best film Poirot is David Suchet, and the best Miss Marple is Joan Hickson. I also love the historical aspects of an Agatha Christie novel – she depicts an age when people had parlourmaids, knew their place in the social hierarchy, wore hats whenever they went out, and invited the vicar for tea. It’s a vanished age, and it has its charms for readers.
Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976 at age 85.
Do you prefer Poirot or Miss Marple? Tell me in the comment area below.
Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia 1836-1939 by Susannah Fullerton
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