Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, came out in 1920. During the Second World War, she worked as a pharmacy assistant at University College Hospital, London, acquiring a good knowledge of poisons which feature in many of her novels. During the First World War, she worked at a hospital as a nurse later working at a hospital pharmacy, a job that influenced her work, as many of the murders in her books are carried out with poison. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Agatha.īefore marrying and starting a family in London, she had served in a Devon hospital during the First World War, tending to troops coming back from the trenches. She is the creator of two of the most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre.Īgatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three.

According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author, having been translated into at least 103 languages. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation.

She wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in Romance. Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.ĭame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie is the best-selling author of all time.

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