Paula Sharka

Agatha Christie

Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie became, and remains, the best-selling novelist
of all time.

She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as
the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over a billion
copies in the English language and a billion in translation.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890 in Torquay, Devon, South
West England into a cmfortably well off middle class family. What made her upbringing
unusual, even for its time, was that she was home schooled largely by her father, an
American. Her mother, Clara, who was an excellent storyteller, did not want her to learn
to read until she was eight but Agatha, bored and as the only child at home (she was a
much loved “afterthought” with two older siblings) taught herself to read by the age of
five.

Close chapter 
Where did her creativity come from? She absorbed the children’s stories of the time -
Edith Nesbit (The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Railway Children) and Louisa M
Alcott (Little Women) but also poetry and startling thrillers from America. Agatha
invented imaginary friends, played with her animals, attended dance classes and began
writing poems when she was still a child.

When she was five, the family spent some time in France having rented out the family
home of Ashfield to economise, and it was here with her “governess” Marie, that Agatha
learnt her idiomatic but erratically spelt French. At the age of eleven there was a shock.
Her father, not well since the advent of financial difficulties, died after a series of heart
attacks. Clara was distraught and Agatha became her mother’s closest companion.
There were more money worries and talk of selling Ashfield. But Clara and Agatha
found a way forward and from the age of 15 Agatha boarded at a succession of
pensions and took piano and singing lessons. She could have been a professional
pianist but for her excruciating shyness in front of those she did not know.

By the age of 18 she was amusing herself with writing short stories – some of which
were published in much revised form in the 1930s - with family friend and author Eden
Philpotts offering shrewd and constructive advice. “The artist is only the glass through
which we see nature, and the clearer and more absolutely pure that glass, so much the
more perfect picture we can see through it. Never intrude yourself.”

Clara’s health and the need for economies dictated their next move. In 1910 they set off
for Cairo and a three month “season” at the Gezirah Palace Hotel. There were evening
dresses and parties and young Agatha showed more interest in these than the local
archaeological sites. The friends and young couples she met in Cairo invited her to
house parties back home on her return. Various marriage proposals followed.

It was in 1912 that Agatha met Archie Christie, a qualified aviator who had applied to
join the Royal Flying Corps. Their courtship was a whirlwind affair; both were desperate
to marry but with no money. According to her autobiography, it was the “excitement of
the stranger” that attracted them both. They married on Christmas Eve 1914 after both
had experienced war – Archie in France and Agatha on the Home Front now working
with the Voluntary Aid Detachment in a Red Cross Hospital in Torquay. They spent their
honeymoon night in The Grand Hotel, Torquay and on the 27th December Archie
returned to France. They met infrequently during the War Years and it wasn’t until
January 1918 when Archie was posted to the War Office in London that Agatha felt her
married life truly began.

Agatha Christie quotes 

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but
through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
― Agatha Christie

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just
how much you love them. ”
― Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

“Very few of us are what we seem.”

― Agatha Christie, The Man in the Mist
“The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of
appearances.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

“Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking."

"An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.”
― Agatha Christie, Peril at End House

“A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all
things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.

- “An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he
is in her.”
― Agatha Christie

“If you place your head in a lion's mouth, then you cannot complain one day if he happens to bite it
off.”
― Agatha Christie

“Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little Indian boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little Indian boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little Indian boys walking in the Zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One little Indian boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none.”
― Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None

“Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.”

― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. ”
― Agatha Christie

“Everybody said, "Follow your heart". I did, it got broken”

“You gave too much rein to your imagination. Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master. The
simplest explanation is always the most likely.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles
“One doesn't recognize the really important moments in one's life until it's too late.”
― Agatha Christie

“Never do anything yourself that others can do for you.”

― Agatha Christie, The Labours of Hercules

“It is really a hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not
be nice to you if you are.”
― Agatha Christie, The Man in the Brown Suit

“Never tell all you know—not even to the person you know best.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary

“One of the saddest things in life, is the things one remembers.”

― Agatha Christie

“The young people think the old people are fools -- but the old people know the young people are
fools.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage

“As a matter of fact it wouldn’t be safe to tell any man the truth about his wife! Funnily enough, I’d
trust most women with the truth about their husbands. Women can accept the fact that a man is a
rotter, a swindler, a drug taker, a confirmed liar, and a general swine, without batting an eyelash, and
without its impairing their affection for the brute in the least. Women are wonderful realists.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia

“Time is the best killer.”

― Agatha Christie

“Why shouldn't I hate her? She did the worst thing to me that anyone can do to anyone else. Let
them believe that they're loved and wanted and then show them that it's all a sham.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

“The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.”
― Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

“But surely for everything you love you have to pay some price.”
― Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie: An Autobiography
“In the midst of life, we are in death.”
― Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None
“It is clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run
wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying, and clearly lacking any strong
hand to keep them down.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.”
― Agatha Christie

“Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention . . . arises directly from idleness,
possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.”
― Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

“I know there's a proverb which that says 'To err is human,' but a human error is nothing to what a
computer can do if it tries.”
― Agatha Christie, Hallowe'en Party