Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie (1891-1976), British writer of detective stories, born Agatha Miller. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), was written while she was nursing in a wartime hospital. A prolific writer, she owed much of her enormous success to the appeal of her two detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. The element of surprise is an important feature of all her stories, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) being particularly famous for its unexpected ending. The Mousetrap (1952) is the world’s longest continually running play. In 1971 she was appointed DBE.
