Agatha Christie

Janet Morgan’s definitive and authorised biography of Agatha Christie, with a new retrospective foreword by the author.

Agatha Christie (1890–1976), the world’s bestselling author, is a public institution. Her creations, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, have become fiction’s most legendary sleuths and her ingenuity has captured the imagination of generations of readers. But although she lived to a great age and was prolific, she remained elusively shy and determinedly private.

Given sole access to family papers and other protected material, Janet Morgan’s definitive biography unravels Agatha Christie’s life, work and relationships, creating a revealing and faithfully honest portrait. The book has delighted readers of Christie’s detective stories for more than 30 years with its clear view of her career and personality, and this edition includes a new foreword by the author reflecting on the longevity of Agatha Christie’s extraordinary success and popularity.

Reviews

‘A masterly an gripping biography … Janet Morgan’s study has merits far beyond merely keeping the faithful in touch with their vanished priestess.’
ANTONIA FRASER, STANDARD

‘From it cool, beautifully paced and consistently entertaining narrative one gets a clear view of Christie’s career and personality.’
ROBERT BARNARD, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

‘It lays, once and for all, the malicious rumours and vulgar gossip put about by other writers on the subject of Agatha Christie’s ten days’ disappearance in 1926, providing an authoritative, as well as authorised, explanation for the event.’
T.J. BINYON, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

‘Leaves not a stone unturned in the day to day doings of Mrs Christie; eighty-six years of bric-a-brac, people incidents houses, places, bills and interminable contract and copyright deals.’
POLLY TOYNBEE, GUARDIAN

About the author

Janet Morgan is a writer and consultant who worked in the government’s ‘Think Tank’ from 1978 to 1981 and now advises governments, companies and other organizations on long-range planning, new technology and different strategies. Her books include The House of Lords and the Labour Government 1964-70 and the acclaimed biography of Edwina Mountbatten. She was the editor of the three-volume edition of The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister and of Backbench Diaries 1951-63 by Richard Crossman and was the co-editor, with Richard Hoggart, of The Future of Broadcasting. Agatha Christie was her first biography.