Episode 19: Agatha Christie

The Queen of Crime led a fascinating life! So many events of her life inspired some of her most famous works. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everybody, I'm Shannon, and welcome to the They Hid What Podcast. On this podcast, I explore parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing Agatha Christie. Let's get into it. We know her as the Queen of Crime, but who is she really? What was her life? In July of this year, I decided I wanted to read all of Agatha Christie's books within one year. I had read a few of her books previously and loved the genre. This of course got me curious as to the person who can crank out so many compelling mysteries. So let's begin. Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on September 15, 1890, in the seaside town of Torquay in Devon, South England, to parents Frederick and Clara. Fun fact Agatha's mother Clara was the niece of Agatha's father's first wife. And Agatha called Frederick's mother Auntie Granny. Being the youngest of three children, Agatha was bored at home alone and taught herself to read by age five. She became an avid reader and loved to read children's stories, little women, poetry, and thrillers. Also, when Agatha was five years old, her family's finances had changed and they decided to move. They rented out their home in Devon and began staying in hotels in France. In her autobiography, Agatha said, The two winters and one summer that I spent in Paris were some of the happiest days I have ever known. All sorts of delightful things happened all the time. She would return to London to visit her grandmother's but ended up finishing her education in France. Agatha was first published at a young age. When visiting her grandmother's in Ealing, a London suburb, Agatha wrote a poem about the new trams that had arrived in 1901. She would have been about 10 or 11 at the time. And this was published in the local magazine. Agatha's father died when she was 11 years old, and this is when Agatha became her mother's closest friend. Agatha was going to different boarding schools in Paris and began writing short stories when she was 18. This was at the suggestion of her mother, who said she should try writing short stories while she was in bed with the flu. Family friend and author Eden Philpotts gave Agatha some advice on how to rework her short stories. In 1910, Agatha and her mother spent three months in Cairo during the debutante season. Agatha went to 50 dances, made friends who then invited her to more debutante events, and had various marriage proposals. Reginald Lucy was one of the men who proposed to Agatha, and she had accepted. Reggie told Agatha that they should wait two years before getting married in case someone richer came along and she wanted to marry them instead. Well, someone else did come along. Enter Archie Christie. Archie and Agatha met at a party in 1912 and a relationship soon developed. Archie was an aviator who fought in World War I in France. According to Agatha, it was the excitement of the stranger that attracted them both. The two ended up marrying on Christmas Eve 1914 and spent their honeymoon night in the Grand Hotel in Torquay. On December 27th, Archie returned to France and the two had infrequent meetings during the war. During the war, Agatha was a voluntary aid detachment in a Red Cross hospital in Torquay and acted as a nurse. She joined the hospital's dispensary in 1915 and trained under a pharmacist. In 1917, Agatha completed the exam of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. This was a trade company that manufactured and sold medicinal and pharmaceutical products. Agatha was no slouch. During the wartime, refugees pour in from all areas. Thousands of Belgians fled to England, and Agatha thought that a Belgian refugee, a former policeman, would make an excellent detective. This was big because during her time working at the apothecary, Agatha was writing a detective novel, what would later become the mysterious affair at Styles, and needed a detective character for it. You see, Agatha's sister had bet her that Agatha couldn't write a good detective story, but told her to give it a try since it would break up the monotony of dispensing. This was the birth of Hercule Poirot. Taking what she knew from life, Agatha decided to make the murder weapon poison, since she had learned so much about it. After the book was published, a review in the pharmaceutical journal said, quote, The murderer's application of poison was so well described, in fact, that when the book was eventually published, Agatha received an unprecedented honor for a writer of fiction. In January 1918, Archie was assigned to the War Office in London, and Agatha felt her marriage could truly begin. The couple rented an apartment in London in 1919, and on August 5th of that year, their daughter Rosalind was born. Agatha was on a roll with her novel and took a two-week vacation and went to the Mooreland Hotel in Dartmoor to finish the story. She was seen walking the beach and talking aloud as the characters to work it out. Agatha finally sent the finished book to various publishers, but they all rejected it. John Lane of the Bodley Head Publishing Company was the seventh person to receive a copy of Agatha's book. He accepted the mysterious affair at Styles and contracted Agatha to produce five more books. Mr. Lane did, however, ask Agatha to rewrite the final chapter of Styles, suggesting to move the final scene out of the courtroom. Agatha rewrote it to take place in the library, and in 1920, Agatha Christie's first novel was released. In 1922, Archie and Agatha went on a 10-month voyage they called the Grand Tour. This Grand Tour was actually part of Archie's job and was led by his employer. The employer provided inspiration for Sir Eustace Pedler in The Man in the Brown Suit, which was published in 1924. During this trip, Agatha learned to surf in Cape Town and became the first British woman to do so standing up. Also, in 1922, Agatha published The Secret Adversary. The family reunited in 1923 and moved to Sunningdale outside of London, where they eventually settled in a house they named Styles. Agatha published The Murder on the Lynx, her second Poirot novel, The Man in the Brown Suit in 1924, and The Secret of Chimneys in 1925. However, Agatha had become fed up with her publishers, the Bodley Head, because she felt like their terms were unfair. She found a new agent, Edmund Cork of Hughes Massey, who found her a new publisher, William Collins and Sons, now Harper Collins. Agatha was tasked with cleaning out her mother's house, called Ashfield, and struggled to write during this time. She was now separated from Archie due to the distance, and the relationship soon broke down. Archie fell in love with a friend named Nancy. In June of this same year, the murder of Roger Ackroyd, her first book with Collins, was published. This is the book that defined Agatha Christie's career. Perhaps all of these life events happening at once was too much for Agatha, because in December 1926, she disappeared. Agatha left seven-year-old daughter Rosalind at home with the maids and walked out of the house. The staff reported her missing to the police, and a nationwide search ensued. Her car was found abandoned the next morning several miles away, and the press and public began speculating what may have happened. What happened was this. Agatha left the house and went to King's Cross Station and took a train to Harrowgate. She checked into the Swan Hydropathic Hotel, now the old Swan Hotel, under the name Teresa Neal, and was there for 10 days. Members of the hotel band recognized her and alerted the police. Archie was called to pick her up, and when he arrived, Agatha didn't recognize him. It was believed that she was possibly concussed or had amnesia, since she also had no recollection of who she was. Agatha returned home in London to Rosalind and her secretary Carlo and never spoke of the incident. She did, however, follow up with psychiatric treatment. In 1927, Agatha needed money but was struggling to write. At her brother-in-law's suggestion, she combined short stories involving Hercule Poirot and published The Big Four. This was also the year that Agatha introduced Miss Jane Marple in a short story, The Tuesday Nightclub, for the Royal Magazine. The following year, 1928, Agatha's divorce from Archie was granted, and she and Rosalind moved to the Canary Islands. In March, she was also able to publish the book she had been struggling with after the death of her mother, The Mystery of the Blue Train. Agatha said, quote, This marked the moment when writing was no longer a pleasure, but a profession. In April, Agatha wrote her first novel under her pen name, Mary Westmacott, called Giant's Bread. This book was a work of fiction about a composer who reinvents his identity. Agatha felt that the pseudonym allowed her to write, quote, more heartfelt, personal pieces about life's experiences. On May 15, 1928, the murder of Roger Ackroyd was turned into a play called Alibi by Michael Morton. Even though it ran for 250 performances, Agatha didn't like the adaptation. In July of 1928, The Coming of Mr. Quinn, a short story Agatha wrote in 1924, was made into a film called The Passing of Mr. Quinn. At a dinner party, Agatha met a couple that had just returned from Baghdad and she was inspired. She canceled a planned trip to the West Indies and booked a ticket on the Orient Express. Agatha said of the decision, quote, one must do things by oneself sometimes, mustn't one? I never had before. I didn't much want to now. But I thought, it's now or never. Either I cling to everything that's safe and I know, or else I develop more initiative, do things on my own. And so it was that five days later I started for Baghdad. From Baghdad, she set out to an archaeological site in Ur, where she met Leonard and Catherine Woolley. They became quick friends, and the Woolies invited Agatha back to Ur in 1930. It was during this visit in February 1930 that Agatha met 25-year-old archaeologist Max Malawan. Catherine had asked Max to show Agatha the historic sites. The two enjoyed each other's company, and Max was surprised how Agatha could rough it in the desert. Max visited Agatha's home, and on the last day of his visit, Max proposed. In May of 1930, Agatha was approached by the Board of Tourism for the Isle of Man. They wanted her to write up a treasure hunt around the island to bring in more visitors. Agatha wrote the Manx Gold Treasure Hunt, including visual and written clues to four snuff boxes that could be turned in at the tourism office for 100 pounds. Advertisements for the treasure hunt started appearing on May 9, 1930, and interested parties could write to the office to get a guide and a roadmap. The full story of Manx Gold was published in a Manchester newspaper in five installments from May 23rd to 28th. The full story was later added to a book of short stories called The Harlequin Tea Set, which was published in 1997. Max and Agatha married on September 11, 1930, in Edinburgh and traveled around for a honeymoon before Max returned to his Dixite and Agatha went to London. In October 1930, the first full-length Miss Marple novel was published, The Murder at the Vicarage, and in December, the play Black Coffee premiered. After seeing the story play out on stage, Agatha decided not to use Poirot in any further plays, since she felt he was a distraction from the plot. Black Coffee was turned into a film in 1931. Max had left the Woolies team and joined new projects. Eventually, Agatha joined him and became part of the dig team. She would write in the mornings and help on the sites in the afternoon. Agatha would use her face cream to clean their finds. She would also draw and photograph each item. Free you see. Agatha took a photography class just for this purpose. However, Max thought that her photographs were too creative and just wanted simple recordings. This was Agatha's new life. Summers were spent at home with Rosalind. October through March, she was out on digs. Christmas, she was with her sister's family, and the rest of the year was in London and Winterbrook. She planned to write two to three books a year and would use her travels as inspiration. Christmas 1931, Agatha went to London alone via the Orient Express. After passing through Istanbul, a thunderstorm hit and delayed the train for two days. Agatha spent her time closely observing the other passengers and started jotting down notes for Murder on the Orient Express, which would be published in 1934. In 1933, Max, Agatha, and Rosalind took a trip to Egypt and cruised down the Nile. Mother and daughter spent hours speculating about the other passengers. Agatha also released her second Mary Westmacott novel titled Unfinished Portrait. It was said to be, quote, closest Agatha had come to an autobiographical work, thinly disguising some of her most poignant and painful memories. Max decided to start a new excavation in Syria and was assisted by Robin McCartney, who was a watercolor painter. Robin went on to create the cover art for Murder in Mesopotamia, Death on the Nile, Murder in the Muse, and Appointment with Death. Between 1934 and 1938, Agatha published 14 more novels, sold the family home, and purchased Greenway, a home she remembered from childhood. However, in September, the country learned that Britain was at war with Germany. Max volunteered for the Royal Air Force in North Africa, but became dissatisfied with his role and went to London. Agatha worked in the hospital dispensary in Torquay, and the couple decided to let evacuees stay in their home. Agatha used writing as her escape during this time and released 11 novels during the course of World War II. In 1941, the novel N or M was published as Agatha's gesture to the war effort. The plot was about detective couple Tommy and Tuppence needing to unmask Nazi spies. Interestingly, this book wasn't published in the United States until they joined the Allied forces. At some point during the war years, she also wrote the last Poirot and Miss Marple novels. They were safely locked away in a vault to be published on the event of her death. Curtain was eventually printed in 1975, but Sleeping Murder was released in 1976 after Agatha's death. Daugh Rosalind got married in 1940, had a son in 1943, and became a widow in 1944 after her husband died during the Battle of Normandy. In 1944, Greenway was taken over by the U.S. Coast Guard. When Max and Agatha returned to their home, they discovered that bathrooms were added, which Agatha had to fight to get removed, and that Lieutenant Marshall Lee painted a frieze around the walls of the library detailing their journey from Orange in the United States to the River Dart. In 1945, the war ends, and Max returns home for good. It was around this time that Agatha decided to write one novel a year, A Christie for Christmas, because she was, quote, unhappy about becoming an employed wage slave. Agatha decided to focus more on playwriting. In 1946, an American book reviewer announced that Mary Westmacott was Agatha Christie, which is just rude. In November of the same year, Agatha released a nonfiction telling of her archaeological journeys. In 1947, Max became the first chair of Western Asiatic Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, which is part of the University of London, and the new director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. Max and Agatha would spend each winter living and working at the dig site in Iraq. Agatha would sleep in a tent but had a room in the expedition house for writing. She was approached by the BBC and asked to write a radio play for the 80th birthday of Queen Mary, who was an avid fan of Agatha's work. Agatha wrote Three Blind Mice, which later became The Mouse Trap. In 1950, Agatha releases her 50th book, and in October 1952, the Mouse Trap opened in Nottingham. The play then transferred to the Ambassadors Theater in the West End in November, and in September 1956, it became the longest-running play in British history. In 1974, it moved to the St. Martin's Theatre, where it has been ever since. She released two more plays and became the only playwright to have three productions running concurrently in the West End. In 1956, Agatha received the CBE, the commander of the most excellent order of the British Empire. Max was awarded a gold medal from the University of Pennsylvania. The two traveled to the ceremony but also visited the Grand Canyon and the movie set for Witness for the Prosecution, which was released as a short story in 1953 and released as a film in 1957. In the 1960s, movies based about Miss Marple were released, but Agatha wasn't thrilled with the interpretations. She thought the lead role was miscast. In 1974, Agatha made her last public appearance at the film premiere of Murder on the Orient Express. A high of the night was being greeted at her seat by Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Anne. A low was she thought Poirot's mustaches weren't luxurious enough. The following year, Poirot's last story was published, and the New York Tim ran its first ever obituary for a fictional character. On January 12th, 1976, Agatha Christie died in her home. Two West End theaters dimmed their outside lights in her honor. All in all, Agatha Christie published 66 novels, 16 plays, and 14 short story collections. Her stories are still being made into movies and inspiring TV shows. A true legend never dies. That's all for this story. Come back next week to learn what else has been hidden.