The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A biographical companion to the works of Agatha Christie

by Charles Osborne

A comprehensive and authorised biographical companion to the works of Agatha Christie covering books, films, TV and plays – revised and updated edition.


Agatha Christie was the author of over 100 plays, short story collections and novels which have been translated into 103 languages; she is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Many have tried to copy her but none has succeeded. Attempts to capture her personality on paper, to discover her motivations or the reasons for her popularity, have usually failed. Charles Osborne, a lifelong student of Agatha Christie, has approached this most private of persons above all through her books, and the result is a fascinating companion to her life and work.


This ‘professional life’ of Agatha Christie provides authoritative information on each book’s provenance, on the work itself and on its contemporary critical reception set against the background of the major events in the author’s life. Illustrated with many rare photographs, this comprehensive guide to the world of Agatha Christie has been fully updated to include details of all the publications, films and TV adaptations in the 25 years since her death.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Agatha Christie, Crime, History, Mystery, Reference

421 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Charles Thomas Osborne was a journalist, theatre and opera critic, poet and novelist. He was assistant editor of The London Magazine from 1958 until 1966, literature director of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1971 until 1986, and chief theatre critic of Daily Telegraph (London) from 1986 to 1991. He is the only author the Agatha Christie Estate has ever allowed to produce adapted works in her name. (wikipedia)

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard work. Would be useful as a companion to the individual books. Format takes each book in turn and therefore few useful insights are offered. Author seems obsessed with errors to do with naming of characters, aging of characters etc. There are germs of interesting theories but none are developed. Best used as a reference work.

[Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had copies of this book over the years depending on how fanatic I was about my Agatha Christie obsession. I loved it as a resource of her novels (without ruining the surprise of any of them) and all the adaptations of her stories (up to the book's publication). It also provided a biography of Agatha Christie's life. A must have for Agatha Christie fans and Charles Osborne really knew his stuff. He also adapted three of her plays into novels.

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

rating should be 4.5

[Ruthiella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably only for hard core Christie fans. But since I am one, I liked it. Osborne recounts Christie’s life through the lens of her writings chronologically. There is copious detail about alternate titles, reuses of plots, what got turned into a play, etc. For any reader interested in reading this book but worried about spoilers: Osborn does not give away the end to any of the books, which is refreshing in a biography. So many biographers blithely reveal plot points which I find annoying as a reader.

He did get at least one thing wrong. On page 162 it is not the brother of Carrie Louise’s late husband who is murdered, but his son in They Do it with Mirrors . Possibly this was corrected in a later edition of the book, but I read the first edition.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say ... Agatha Christie is my favorite. I've read ALL of her published writings. More than once. Some in Dutch as well.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining encyclopedia of all of Agatha Christie's works. Each entry includes a non-spoiler short synopsis of each publication (which includes poems, plays, novels, short story collections and non-fiction works.) There are also interesting tidbits of biographical information from her life during the time period, details about the development of the stories, contemporary reviews, and critical assessments from the author. This book could be enjoyed as a companion piece to reference when you read the individual works, and does not need to be read straight through (although I found it breezy enough to do so.)

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am putting this one on the back burner for awhile- I just got my own copy, so no pressure to finish.

It is a concise look at every book and short story written by Ms Christie, as well as an excellent biography. This book is much more informative than her own autobiography. It covers her mysterious disappearance which she didn’t mention.

This is something that can be picked up and put down anytime, so that’s what I’m doing. Too many books in a pile waiting to be read!

9/24/2020 I’m getting back to this to get the filth of Running with Scissors out of my head!

[Brit McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start out by saying - this type of book is 100% for someone like me. Give me all the books about authors and what they wrote and how they wrote it, and throw in a bit about their lives too. I was pretty sure I was going to like this even before I started this, and I was right.

Agatha Christie is one of my favourite authors and I loved this peek behind the curtain at her writing. Not only did she write the detective novels she's best known for, she also wrote short stories, plays and even a book of poems. She could churn out multiple books a year, and while I haven't read them all, it does sound like the quality stayed fairly high, the twists and turns still surprising and most importantly they were enjoyable for the reader all throughout her life. It sounds like though we should be quite convinced that most of the movies made from her books were (at time of writing) completely rubbish! I've only seen the most recent Murder on the Orient Express, but I liked it. Definitely can't vouch for anything earlier though.

It's been a while since I've read any of her books and had been thinking for a while I'd like to work through them chronologically - this book is a helpful guide!

[Lady Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic read for those interested in a bit of background on the inspiration and history behind each of Christie's works. My only bone to pick is that the sources and references are not well documented and it rather tough to look up the original sources of many of the quotes attributed to Christie or her husband.

[Chris Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for Agatha Christie fans. A lot of historical data that is fun to learn. At times, the author gets a bit too heavy-handed about non-PC references in her books. Seriously? It's a bit distracting, but if you can put his snarkiness aside, it is a good read. Fortunately, the snark is few and far between.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review on my book blog: http://quirkyreader.livejournal.com/2...

[Beth Rawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Thoroughly researched and endlessly fascinating.

[Ant Koplowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent reference book for Agatha Christie buffs. Well researched and well written.

© Koplowitz 2012

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit too picky for me. Do I care she left an 'e' out of a French word? Overload of tedious information like who acted in her first films in 1930 etc. I will stick to just enjoying rereading her books.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

I must say I really disliked this book. It’s useless as a true companion book as it only gives brief synopsises while not disclosing any of the endings. The author is very condescending towards perceived mistakes in Agatha Christie’s books and some of her plots, which he personally found mediocre but I for example enjoy immensely.

I’m not sure who this book is written for as it wouldn’t add to the understanding of a true Christie buff and probably wouldn’t interest a novice. He also has the annoying habit of attributing all of the characters’ opinions directly to Agatha Christie although I don’t see a reason to do so in most cases.

He’s also on a very high horse talking about Agatha Christie’s semitism. I’ve read a lot of Golden Age books and by the standards of her time Agatha Christie is one of the more open and liberal authors writing at that time. It’s ridiculous to hold her to the standards of our time. So all in all I really disliked this book and would have DNF’d it if I didn’t hope for some redeeming quality in the end.

[Gail Sacharski · Rating 5 out of 5]

After completing my re-read of all Agatha Christie's works, I am still working on reading various writers on her. Charles Osborne has wriiten some of her plays into novels & knows her work well. He has compiled a combination biography/history/critique of all the published works in chronological order. This book is a must-have for Christie devotees, giving titles, book-type (novel, story, collection, play, poetry, etc.), all editions, what was happening in Agatha's life at the time, a synopsis of the plot without revealing spoilers, an honest critique of the story, & so much more information. It's also a good place to start for new Christie readers who may be wondering where to start or be confused by which stories are contained in which volumes & the stories that sometimes go by two or more titles. A great reference companion when reading The Queen of Crime.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this companion piece while I read the rest of Ms. Christie’s catalog (I had read all the Poirot books in 2020j. While it was interesting and I learned a lot about Ms. Christie’s life, I found that there was a lot of repetition. Many passages were a cut and paste from her biography or from that of her husband, Max. Additionally, I’m not sure that I agree with the decision to exclude spoilers from the descriptions. Part of the reason it is called a companion piece is because it is intended to be read in conjunction with each Mr. Christie novel. It takes away a large part of the usefulness of the companion piece when it is left unable to explain any discrepancies or interesting points of each work for fear that they serve as a spoiler.

[Miss Lemon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed walk through all of Agatha's writings - mysteries, plays, short stories. And Charlie doesn't stop at describing the plots and characters but goes much much farther. Some of the things he shares are: Describing when, where and what was going on in Christie's life when writing the particluar piece; and what she thought of each publication as the years went by. When and how she pulled characters from one mystery to another. What was the publics response. And more, more, more. Anyone who wants to delve into this prolific and forever-popular author and discover the details of her work and methods has got to get a copy!

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where do you go after you’ve read all the crime books written by Agatha Christie? You start reading about Agatha Christie. This is an excellent place to start. Look on it as a Christie Primer - doubling as biography and a critical study of all her published works. It’s chronological in execution, it goes through her career year by year - giving a brief synopsis of the books she published (with no spoilers) alongside key information of what she was doing at the time.
Having now completed all her crime novels (and published plays) this was an enjoyable way to tie everything together.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hardly know what to say about this book. It is a very comprehensive account of all the works of Agatha Christie.She was very prolific and wrote books and plays and short stories.

A discussion of all her writings would necessarily be somewhat repetitive but I did find this book to be very repetitive and got bogged down in the middle. Did we really need to know which books, etc., were published in the UK and not the States - over and over?

If someone was doing a university paper on the development of the detective story, this book would prove valuable.

[Sara Aye Moung · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are an avid reader of Agatha Christie (as I am) then this book is for you . Written in the early 80s it takes you through all her writing chronologically overlaid with information about her life at that time. Lots of interesting snippets of information

[Catherine Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book about Christie's many novels and short stories

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting companion book for my favourite author.

[Jane]

Exquisitely written, if bleak little tale from

[Marie-Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive and authoritative account of the writer's life and work.

[Teemu Öhman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the reviewers here have said that this is a must-read for Agatha Christie fans, and I fully agree. At least it’s a must-read for those fans who want to know about her life, where and when she wrote the books and the plays, what she and Max Mallowan thought about (some of) them, how bad Poirot’s French was, what the adaptations (especially the plays that were produced while she was still alive) were like, and much more. Thus, the book serves as an excellent chronological biography as well as a companion to all her published writings. And, of course, Charles Osborne really knows his stuff and his style is highly entertaining.

The plot synopses are essentially spoiler-free, which some here have criticized but which I liked, because I haven’t read all of her books (yet). The only very minor complaint I have is that a table or an appendix of who’s who, at least for the recurring characters that jump from one “series” to another, would have been useful.

I suppose it might be worth noting that Stephen Poole also found Osborne’s book useful, because he essentially copied lots of Osborne’s text into “Agatha Christie – A Reader’s Companion” that he did with Vanessa Wagstaff (as I’ve mentioned in my review of that lousy book). So don’t bother with that one, read Osborne’s masterpiece instead.

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the way Agatha Christie's writing career was intertwined with the events of her everyday life. It was an interesting and entertaining way to view the events that were occurring during the time her books were written and published. The observations about the books by Osborne were some of the things I had noted for myself over the years. It was fun seeing another fan of Christie note them. The photos were nifty, too.

[Ed Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This well-researched book went into a bit too much detail for my taste. However, I could recommend it for someone wanting to know a great deal about Christie's character development and storylines. If I had read every single piece of work she'd written, I would no doubt find the analytic style more appealing and I would understand all the little references made to her numerous works.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agatha Christie disappeared soon after she found out her husband was having an affair. She staged her disappearance well . . . I liked this book, but I have a hard time getting into non-fiction. A good read, though. Well written. I didn't actually finish it.