agatha christie biography laura thompson

We hear nothing of Christie’s elder brother, Monty, for example, until she reaches adolescence - at which point we’re told the entire story of his life, up to his death in 1929. If this weren’t confusing enough, Thompson has little regard for chronology. More than once, she uses the same quotation to illustrate different points. When discussing an event in Christie’s early childhood, Thompson (whose previous work includes a true-crime narrative and two books about the Mitford family) is apt to offer a quotation from a detective novel written 50 years later, followed by a plot summary of this irrelevant book. After a brief stint as a war nurse, Agatha married Archibald Christie, began writing mysteries, had a daughter, wrote books, divorced, wrote even more books, married the archaeologist Max Mallowan, wrote even more and died in 1976, a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and runner-up to Shakespeare as the best-selling writer of all time.

Her improvident American father died young her mother worshiped her. She was born Agatha Miller in 1890 to an upper-middle-class Victorian family in Torquay, Devon. Neither group will find much to like in Laura Thompson’s “Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life,” a book that makes mysteries where none are to be found.Īpart from her disappearance, the basic facts of Christie’s life are established. These - Edmund Wilson was among the first - take the delight of New Atheists in poking holes in these same security blankets, denouncing Christie’s hoary formulas, her two-dimensional characters, her bigotry. There are the devotees, who reread particular titles for comfort, flock to online chat rooms to revisit favorite poisonings and confer with fellow obsessives over the merits of respective portrayers of Poirot. Almost since the beginning of her career, there have been two passionate camps on the subject of her oeuvre. At that moment, Agatha Christie first became controversial.ĭespite her cozy plots and neat endings, she has stayed that way. Although her family quickly announced that she was suffering from amnesia, many assumed the disappearance had been a calculated and irresponsible publicity stunt. When she was found, unharmed and apparently in a cheerful mood, in the elegant spa town of Harrogate, Yorkshire, the media turned on her viciously. Many assumed Christie had committed suicide, and thousands of civilians joined in the search for her body. Suspicion was cast on Christie’s philandering husband, her personal assistant and even a serial killer. $35.Īs many Agatha Christie fans know, in 1926 the popular author disappeared for 11 days, an event that spawned a huge manhunt and a tabloid frenzy. AGATHA CHRISTIE A Mysterious Life By Laura Thompson Illustrated.

Agatha christie biography laura thompson