According to Christie, Clara believed she should not learn to read until she was eight; thanks to her curiosity, she was reading by the age of four. [12] :13 Her sister had been sent to a boarding school, but their mother insisted that Christie receive her education at home. As a result, her parents and sister supervised her studies in reading, writing and basic arithmetic, a subject she particularly enjoyed. They also taught her music, and she learned to play the piano and the mandolin. [4] :8,20–21

The other Westmacott titles are: Unfinished Portrait (1934), Absent in the Spring (1944), The Rose and the Yew Tree (1948), A Daughter's a Daughter (1952), and The Burden (1956). In 2015, marking the 125th anniversary of her birth date, 25 contemporary mystery writers and one publisher gave their views on Christie's works. Many of the authors had read Christie's novels first, before other mystery writers, in English or in their native language, influencing their own writing, and nearly all still viewed her as the "Queen of Crime" and creator of the plot twists used by mystery authors. Nearly all had one or more favourites among Christie's mysteries and found her books still good to read nearly 100 years after her first novel was published. Just one of the 25 authors held with Wilson's views. [163] Book sales [ edit ] When Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976, she was known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime, unrivalled as the best-selling novelist of all time with two billion books sold in more than 100 languages. Though she kept her private life a mystery, for some years Agatha had secretly written her autobiography, and when it was published after her death, millions of her fans agreed - this was her best story! About Agatha Christie Limited". The Home of Agatha Christie. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021 . Retrieved 18 April 2020. Agatha Christie – the explorer & archaeologist" (PDF). Agatha Christie Limited. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2009 . Retrieved 1 March 2012.Mezel, Kathy (2007). "Spinsters, Surveillance, and Speech: The Case of Miss Marple, Miss Mole, and Miss Jekyll". The Journal of Modern Literature. 30 (2): 103–20. doi: 10.2979/JML.2007.30.2.103. JSTOR 4619330. S2CID 162411534. Edmund Wilson on Crime Fiction". The Crazy Oik. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017 . Retrieved 23 June 2020. Christie's Life: 1925–1928 A Difficult Start". The Home of Agatha Christie. Archived from the original on 7 December 2015 . Retrieved 12 February 2017. Partvonal (Hungary) named "Életem" (My Life) and translated to Hungarian by Tibor Kállai. 652 pp. ISBN 9789639644953 and the 2nd ed. Helikon (Hungary) 2021, 692 pp. ISBN 9789634796091

Christie's autobiography makes no reference to the disappearance. [12] Two doctors diagnosed her with "an unquestionable genuine loss of memory", [49] [50] yet opinion remains divided over the reason for her disappearance. Some, including her biographer Morgan, believe she disappeared during a fugue state. [4] :154–59 [40] [51] The author Jared Cade concluded that Christie planned the event to embarrass her husband but did not anticipate the resulting public melodrama. [52] :121 Christie biographer Laura Thompson provides an alternative view that Christie disappeared during a nervous breakdown, conscious of her actions but not in emotional control of herself. [14] :220–21 Public reaction at the time was largely negative, supposing a publicity stunt or an attempt to frame her husband for murder. [53] [e] Second marriage and later life: 1927–1976 [ edit ] Christie's room at the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, where the hotel claims she wrote her 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express St. Marys Cholsey – Agatha Christie". St Marys Cholsey. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020 . Retrieved 18 April 2020. Agatha Christie Graphic Novels Series". goodreads. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021 . Retrieved 5 May 2020. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap Thompson, Laura (2008), Agatha Christie: An English Mystery, London: Headline Review, ISBN 978-0-7553-1488-1Robyns, Gwen (1978). The Mystery of Agatha Christie. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. p.13. ISBN 0-385-12623-9. New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake's 80th birthday". The Guardian. 13 November 2016. Archived from the original on 5 November 2016 . Retrieved 13 November 2016.

The saddest thing in life and the hardest to live through is the knowledge that there is someone you love very much, whom you cannot save from suffering.”

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Scott, Sutherland (1953). Blood in Their Ink. London: Stanley Paul. Cited in Fitzgibbon (1980). p. 19. Curran, John. "75 facts about Christie". The Home of Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie Limited. Retrieved 21 July 2017. As I have said, I welcomed new ideas; in fact my motto might have been established by then as ‘Try anything once’." Chandler, Raymond (1950). "The Simple Art of Murder: An Essay". The Simple Art of Murder. Houghton Mifflin Company. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020 . Retrieved 4 May 2020.