Agatha Christie is the world's best-known mystery writer. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 45 foreign languages. She is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.

She was born Agatha Miller in Torquay, England on September 15, 1890, the daughter of Frederick Alvah Miller and Clarissa Miller. Her father died when she was a child. Agatha was educated at home; her mother encouraged her to write from a very early age. At sixteen she was sent to school in Paris where she studied singing and piano. In 1914 she married Colonel Archibald Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps. The couple had one daughter, Rosalind, before their divorce in 1928. Archie Christie announced that he had fallen in love with a younger woman, Nancy Neele. That same year, Christie's beloved mother died. The story of Christie's real life mystery in 1926, when she disappeared for a time and lived in a Harrowgate hotel under the name 'Mrs. Neele,' was the basis for the film Agatha.

Christie worked as a nurse during WWI, which helped her learn about prescriptions and poisons -- something which figured strongly in her writing career. After the war, to keep herself occupied during the day, she turned to writing novels and was a hit from her very first detective story. The Mysterious Affair at Styles introduced Hercule Poirot, surely one of the most famous fictional creations of all time. The eccentric Belgian detective triumphed over devious criminals in 33 novels and dozens of short stories, the last of which was Curtain (1975). Christie's other world-famous sleuth, the shrewdly inquisitive, elderly spinster Miss Jane Marple, was a typical English character. But while Poirot used logic and rational methods, Marple relied on her feminine sensitivity and empathy to solve crimes. Marple was featured in 12 novels, the first being Murder At The Vicarage (1930) and the last Sleeping Murder (1977). Both Poirot and Marple have been adapted many times for film and television.

In a writing career that spanned more than 50 years, Agatha Christie wrote a total of 80 novels and short story collections. She also wrote over a dozen plays including The Mousetrap, which opened in London on November 25, 1952, and is now the longest continuously running play in theatrical history.

Agatha Christie also wrote six romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. She wrote nonfiction as well -- four books including an autobiography and an entertaining account of the many archeological expeditions she shared with her second husband, Sir Max Mallowan. In 1967 Christie became president of the British Detection Club, and in 1971 she achieved her country's highest honor when she received the Order of Dame Commander of the British Empire.

Agatha Christie died on January 12, 1976. With over one hundred literary works and 103 foreign language translations, Christie was -- by the time of her death -- the best-selling English novelist of all time.

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