Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), commonly known as Agatha Christie, was an English
crime fiction writer. Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the name Mary Westmacott, but is best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her successful West End theatre plays. Her works, particularly featuring detectives
Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple, have given her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre.
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, in the county of Devon, as the daughter of Frederick Alvah Miller, an American with a moderate private income, and Clarissa Miller. Her father died when she was a child. Agatha Christie was educated home, where her mother encouraged her to write from very early age. At sixteen she was sent to school in
Paris where she studied singing and piano.
Agatha Christie has been called the best-selling writer of books of all time, and the best-selling writer of any kind outsold only by
William Shakespeare and the Bible. An estimated one billion copies of her novels have been sold in English, and another billion in 103 other languages. UNESCO states that she is currently the most translated individual author in the world with only the collective corporate works of Walt Disney Productions superseding her .
Agatha Christie's stage play,
The Mousetrap, holds the record for the longest initial run in the world, opening at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on 25 November 1952, and as of 2007 is still running after more than 20,000 performances.
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