Search

Entertainment

Agatha Christie At 125, More Than ‘Marple’ Meets The Eye

By Amy Feinstein

From the archive: published Sep 15, 2015, 11 years ago. Details may have changed since.

This month marks what would have been Agatha Christie’s 125th birthday, but she is still one of the best-loved mystery writers the world has ever known. To mark this anniversary, her grandson, Matthew Prichard, decided to share family photo albums with her fans so that they could see another side of the legend.

CNN reports that even though most fans pictured her as her character, Jane Marple, she was far more than a little old English lady from the village.

“The early years of my grandmother, up till her 30s really, she was a different person to what she became after she became famous and was known for her writing,” Prichard told CNN. “Then, you might say, she was herself.”

Her mother was the one whose advice set her on the road to her future career.

“Her mother said to her, ‘Well, if you’ve finished reading everything, maybe you’d better write something,'” Prichard explained.

But in speaking of Agatha Christie, it’s hard not to mention the real-life mystery that found Christie in the starring role. For this anniversary, Refinery29 examined the time in Christie’s life that Christie herself went missing. In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared one night, and her car was found by the side of a lake. For 11 days, there was an enormous manhunt, plausibly looking for a body.

She was found at a nearby hotel, under an assumed name, allegedly suffering from amnesia. Neither she nor her family ever spoke of the event again.

The Irish Independent writes that according to her grandson, Christie did not enjoy talking about herself but preferred to hear about what others were doing.

“She hardly ever talked abut herself, she was much more interested in what other people, including me, were doing,” Mathew recalled. “What our enthusiasms were, what she could encourage and any way she could help. She was one of the best listeners I’ve ever met.” Despite this modesty, she was always quietly confident, never taking advice or suggestions.”

Christie lived until the age of 85, happily surrounded by her family.

What is your favorite Agatha Christie mystery?

Latest from Inquisitr

Front page