After watching the theatre play “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie, I got interested in finding more about her personal life. That’s how I got to find the “75 facts about Agatha Christie” list, an article published on the Agatha Christie Limited webpage. The original list was compiled by John Curran, the author of the Edgar Award-winning Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks and Murder in the Making.
Out of the long list of 75 facts, I chose only 5 that will be mentioned below, mostly related to her personal life. Here we go!
Did you know that Agatha Christie …
§ … studied to be a classical musician in her teen years, but was too nervous to perform?
She learnt to play both the piano and the mandolin from her parents during the homeschooling years.
§ … qualified as a dispenser on 13th April 1917?
Agatha Christie learnt about the properties of everything from cyanide to strychnine by working in a hospital dispensary in wartime.
§ … travelled around the world in 1922?
She travelled to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America with her first husband, Archie. Details about the whole trip (letters, photos) were later documented and published in a book edited by Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard.
§ … worked on archaeological digs?
She married in 1930 to archaeologist Max Mallowan and then spent 20 years living on excavation sites in the Middle East, writing her crime novels and helping her husband.
§ … used the pseudonym Mary Westmacott? This pseudonym remained a secret for almost 20 years!
Under this nom de plume, Christie wrote 6 novels between 1930 and 1956, novels that are different from her regular detective stories.
‘Till next time … happy reading!
Georgiana
Cover image from Amorphia Apparel.
Readers' High Tea 
Very interesting, Georgiana! I knew Christie obtained her knowledge of poisons when she worked as a dispenser, but I didn’t know she had taken a world tour – or that there is a book about it!
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I’m glad you found out new things here 🙂 I personally had no idea about any of these facts about her!
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This is an awesome post – not only is she such a great crime novelist, but she also had an amazing life. I am jealous.
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It’s inspiring to see how many different interests she had! And it’s also very interesting how she used all these know-how areas to write her famous books 🙂
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I agree! I think that’s why her books are so good because she actually went to Egypt and other countries and had different interests. ❤
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