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Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

Agatha Christie

Start date: March 1, 2020

Finish date: March 31, 2020

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Dec 01, 2019 Candi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-autobiography-memoir, chunksters, non-fiction

"I think, myself, that one’s memories represent those moments which, insignificant as they may seem, nevertheless represent the inner self and oneself as most really oneself."

I don’t often read biographies or autobiographies, fearing they will be rather dry, spitting out one fact after another. Not the case here. Agatha Christie writes in a very conversational tone. Indeed, on a day like today in New York, with the icy rain ringing against the siding and the roads as slick as a skating rink, I c "I think, myself, that one’s memories represent those moments which, insignificant as they may seem, nevertheless represent the inner self and oneself as most really oneself."

I don’t often read biographies or autobiographies, fearing they will be rather dry, spitting out one fact after another. Not the case here. Agatha Christie writes in a very conversational tone. Indeed, on a day like today in New York, with the icy rain ringing against the siding and the roads as slick as a skating rink, I could hug this book and imagine the Queen of Crime sitting opposite me with a pot of steaming tea between us. She began writing her autobiography in 1950 and completed it fifteen years later at the age of seventy-five. Besides writing numerous detective and other novels, what a life this woman led! I had no idea.

The book flows nicely beginning with her childhood with little diversions along the way as she recounts her two marriages, one to Archie Christie and the other to Max Mallowan. She endured two world wars, learning some nursing and dispensing skills along the way. She took voice lessons. She loved bathing and swimming and even took up the hobby of surfing. Not having ever picked up a surf board myself, the idea of Dame Agatha doing so just tickles me to no end! She had such zest for life.

"As I have said, I welcomed new ideas; in fact my motto might have been established by then as ‘Try anything once’."

Probably what I relished most about her reminiscences were her picturesque descriptions of her travels around the world. She traveled rather extensively, in particular to the Middle East. Her second husband, Max Mallowan, was an archaeologist and having met him on a dig she later continued to accompany him quite often to other excavation sites in the region. She occasionally recounted humorous anecdotes of the people she met on these trips, especially those from her own homeland. I can’t help but become a bit envious, a tad regretful even, that I have not experienced these same adventures tucked up here in my little corner of the world. She preferred railway travel to most any other mode of transportation. I’ve never considered this, but I can certainly see her point.

"Trains are wonderful; I still adore them. To travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches and rivers – in fact, to see life."

Of course, this wouldn’t be Agatha Christie’s story if she didn’t share her writing life with us as well. I found it very interesting that she didn’t really consider writing to be her career so much as a bit of a hobby that happened to pay the bills. She was not an instant overnight success. The publishing world was one she eventually learned to conquer after having floundered on several occasions. I liked what she said about her two most iconic literary characters:

"People never stop writing to me nowadays to suggest that Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot should meet – but why should they? I am sure they would not enjoy it at all. Hercule Poirot, the complete egoist, would not like being taught his business by an elderly spinster lady."

I highly recommend this to fans of Agatha Christie. Actually, you don’t even need to be a fan of her mysteries to enjoy this book. If reading about a woman with a passion for life from its simplest to its greatest treasures at all fascinates you, then don’t hesitate to grab this one. You’re in for a treat!

"I like sunshine, apples, almost any kind of music, railway trains, numerical puzzles and anything to do with numbers, going to the sea, bathing and swimming, silence, sleeping, dreaming, eating, the smell of coffee, lilies of the valley, most dogs, and going to the theatre."

"… it is a good thing to have had a dream and to have enjoyed it, so long as you do not clutch too hard." ...more

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