Agatha Miller grew up in a special place. Her childhood home stood on a hill above the seaside resort of Torquay in the south of Devon...
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The Blurb
Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was 'just' an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? As Lucy Worsley says, 'She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern'. She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness.
So why - despite all the evidence to the contrary - did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure?
She was born in 1890 into a world which had its own rules about what women could and couldn't do. Lucy Worsley's biography is not just of an internationally renowned bestselling writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman.
With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley's biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was - truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.
My Review
When I was in my late teens and early twenties I devoured books by Agatha Christie. For no reason in particular, I haven't returned to them since, but this book has reawakened my enjoyment of her books and has given me a very unsubtle nudge (aka a poke in the ribs) to start reading them again. So, I have ordered one of her later novels which I have never read before.
As you would expect from the author and historian, Lucy Worsley this book has been expertly researched and written. It is a compelling account of Agatha Christie, and I was gripped from start to finish. I already knew a bit about her as I had previously watched Ms. Worsley's three part television series based on the book. Reading this fills in all of the details and unanswered questions that had to be omitted from the programme.
In fact, the level of detail contained in the book was masterful. I enjoyed reading about how she acquired some of the knowledge she needed for her books. For example, during the war she volunteered in a hospital pharmacy and thus obtained lots of information about poisons that appear in many of her books as a murder weapon.
I actually read this book with my Book Group. As you would expect, some liked it more than others but nevertheless, I think this is probably our highest scoring book for the year. The vast majority of members loved it and for those who didn't... well, you can't please them all and this is no reflection on the quality of the research, writing and information contained in this book.
The overriding thing I have taken away from this book is what an incredible woman Agatha Christie was; particularly in what she achieved as a woman during the period in which she did. The superb writing is accompanied by wonderful photographs and the author has included an extensive list of sources that she used during her research.
She hasn't shied away in discussing the overt racism and anti-Semitism which appear in Mrs Christie's books. Instead, she presents them as they were viewed during the time in which they were written, as well as how we perceive them in the modern day.
For me this was an excellent book to read. It is definitely one of the better nonfiction titles I have read in a while, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1529303919
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 432 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Lucy was born in Reading, studied Ancient and Modern History at New College, Oxford, and I got a PhD in art history from the University of Sussex.
Her first job after leaving college was at a crazy but wonderful historic house called Milton Manor in Oxfordshire. Here she would give guided tours, occasionally feed the llamas, and look for important pieces of paper that her boss Anthony had lost. Soon after that she moved to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, in the lovely job for administrator of the Wind and Watermills Section. Here she helped to organise that celebrated media extravaganza, National Mills Day.
She departed for English Heritage in 1997, first as an Assistant Inspector and then as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings; Bolsover Castle, Hardwick Old Hall, and Kirby Hall were her favourite properties there. In 2002 she made a brief excursion to Glasgow Museums before coming down to London as Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces in 2003.
You can also find Lucy at:
(all opinions are my own)
(author media courtesy of Goodreads)
