September 15: Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie

Posted on September 15, 2021

Key points

This is an update of my post published on September 15, 2010:

Born on this day in 1890 as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, Agatha Christie grew up to be the “Queen of Crime.” She wasn’t a criminal!!! Instead, she was one of the most popular and prolific mystery writers in the English language.

(She also wrote other novels, short stories, poems, non-fiction, and plays, including romances under the name Mary Westmacott. But she is super-duper famous for her mysteries – and it’s a nice coincidence that her married name sorta kinda rhymes with her best loved genre: Christie’s mysteries!)

A prolific writer writes a lot. Christie wrote 80 novels and short story collections (in addition to the plays, poetry, and non-fiction). According to the Agatha Christie website, she is the best-selling author of all time, and one of her plays, The Mousetrap, is the longest-running play in theatrical history. (It only closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic!)

My favorite of her detectives is Hercule Poirot, an eccentric but brilliant Belgian detective who solved crimes by noticing a lot, talking to people a lot, and thinking a whole heck of a lot. Another famous main character is an English spinster / amateur sleuth named Jane Marple.

Celebrate Christie!

Read one of her mysteries, or watch a movie.

A good book to start with is Death in the Clouds or Cards on the Table.

One of the more recent movies is Murder on the Orient Express (2017).

Starting in 2007, many of Christie’s books have been adapted into graphic novels (published by Euro Comics India). Other adaptations include video games and an anime series called Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple.