Agatha Christie, English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright, was born 131 year ago today.
Christie also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott including Giant's Bread. However, she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections that she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigative work of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Parker Pyne, Ariadne Oliver, Harley Quin/Mr. Satterthwaite and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford.
She wrote the world's longest-running play, a murder mystery, The Mousetrap. In 1971 she was made a Dame for her contribution to literature.
Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. She served in a hospital during the First World War before marrying and starting a family in London. She was initially unsuccessful at getting her work published, but — in 1920 — The Bodley Head press published her novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring the character of Hercule Poirot. This launched her literary career.
The Guinness Book of World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly two billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeare's works and the Bible.
According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages. And Then There Were None is Christie's best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time.
Christie's stage play, The Mousetrap, opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End on November 25, 1952 and is still running after more than 25,000 performances.
Most of her books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics, and more than thirty feature films have been based on her work.