1. (1890-1976) Name at birth: Agatha May Clarissa Miller

3. V ery prolific British author of mystery novels and short stories, creator of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective, and Miss Jane Marple. Christie wrote more than 70 detective novels under the surname of her first husband, Colonel Archibald Christie. She also published a series of romances and a children's book. Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, in the county of Devon. Her father died when she was a child. 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.

4. 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. Christie was an accomplished pianist but her stage fright and shyness prevented her from pursuing a career in music. When Christie's mother took her to Cairo for a winter, she wrote there a novel She devoted herself into writing and had short stories published.

5. In 1914 Christie married Archibald Christie, an officer in the Flying Royal Corps. Their daughter, Rosalind, was born in 1919. During World War I she worked in a Red Cross Hospital in Torquayas a hospital dispenser, which gave her a knowledge of poisons. It was to be useful when she started writing mysteries. The Christies bought a house and named it 'Styles' after the first novel. Christie was an accomplished pianist but her stage fright and shyness prevented her from pursuing a career in music.

6. In 56 years Christie wrote 66 detective novels. Christie's marriage broke up in 1926. Archie Christie, who worked in the City In the same year Christie's beloved mother died. After hearing that her husband had left for Miss Neele's house, Christie disappeared for a time. During WW II Christie worked in the dispensary of University College Hospital in London.

7. In her autobiography, Agatha Christie admits to never really having a place or room which was specifically to write in. All she said she needed was a steady table and a typewriter, quite often just the dining room table. She says that there was always a terrible three or four weeks which had to be got through when she first started to write a book.

8. In her autobiography, she says there is no agony like it: such misery and despair, such inability to do anything in the least creative – a feeling of paralysed hopelessness. Then suddenly, she found she would begin to function again, know that it was coming and that the mist was clearing. Agatha Christie talks about how strange it feels to have a book growing inside you, building up all the time. she said that she never found any difficulty writing during the war

9. Agatha Christie believed that economy of wording was particularly important in detective stories. The reader did not want to heard the same thing repeated three or four times. She uses very simple everyday language. Repeats it, rather than trying to introduce new words and phrases. She also relies heavily on dialogue throughout her books.

10. The solution often depends upon the readers interpretation. But she prevent to this to keep her dialogue very simple and straightforward. The simplicity of the language is one of the key points raised in the debate regarding The Agatha Christie Code, an ITV documentary backed by research undertaken by a number of universities. The research team also analysed each of Christie's books for its word length, frequency and sentence structure. They found that all of her books are very similar in style, using the same number of letters in a word on average, and approximately same number of words in a sentence.

11. THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES, 1920 - Stylesin tapaus (suom. Paavo Lehtonen, 1970) THE SECRET ADVERSARY, 1922 - Salainen vastustaja (suom. Eva Siikarla, 1974) THE MURDER ON THE LINKS, 1923 - Golfkentän murha (suom. Niilo Pakarinen, 1943) THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT, 1924 - Ruskeapukuinen mies (suom. Saima-Liisa Laatunen, 1985) POIROT INVESTIGATES, 1924 - Poirotit varhaiset jutut (suom. 1981) THE SECRET CHIMNEYS, 1925 - Rakkauskirjeiden salaisuus (suom. Kyllikki Wehanen, 1948; Kirsti Kattelus, 1984)

12. THE ROAD OF DREAMS, 1925 (verse) THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD, 1926 - Odottamaton ratkaisu (suom. Edvin Ukkonen, 1927) / Kello 9.10 (suom. 1929) / Roger Ackroydin murha (suom. 1959; Kirsti Kattelus, 1982) THE BIG FOUR, 1927 - Neljä suurta (suom. Anna- Liisa Laine, 1978) THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN, 1928 - Sininen juna (suom. Aarre Pipinen, 1940) THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY, 1929 - Seitsemän kellon salaisuus (suom. Helena Luho, 1952) PARTNERS IN CRIME, 1929 (reprinted in part as The Sunningdale Mystery, 1933) - Rikos yhdistää (suom. 1986) THE UNDER DOG, 1929 THE MYSTERIOUS MR. QUINN, 1930 - Herra Quinn esittäytyy (suom. 1986)

13. THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS, 1932 (US title: The Tuesday Club Murders, 1933; selection, as The Mystery of the Blue Geranium and Other Tuesday Club Murders, 1940) THE HOUND OF DEATH AND OTHER STORIES, 1933 - Kuoleman koira ja muita kertomuksia (suom. Anna- Liisa Laine, 1978) LORD ADGWARE DIES, 1933 (US title: Thirteen at Dinner, 1933) - Lordin kuolema (suom. Eila Pennanen, 1953) PARKER PYNE INVESTIGATES, 1934 (US title: Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective, 1934) - Parker Pyne tietää kaiken (suom. 1981) UNFINISHED PORTRAIT, 1934 (as Mary Westmacott) - Kuin muuttolintu (suom. Panu Pekkanen et al, 1976) THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY AND OTHER STORIES, 1934 - Listerdalen arvoitus: kaksitoista kertomusta (suom. Anna-Liisa Laine, 1980) etc.

14. CURTAIN: HERCULE POIROT'S LAST CASE, 1975 - Esirippu: Poirotin viimeinen juttu (suom. Anna-Liisa Laine, 1976) SLEEPING MURDER, 1976 - Neiti Marplen viimeinen juttu (suom. Anna-Liisa Laine, 1977) AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 1977 THE MOUSETRAP AND OTHER PLAYS, 1978 AKHANATON, 1979 (play, prod.; publ. 1973) MISS MARPLE'S FINAL CASES AND TWO OTHER STORIES, 1979 THE AGATHA CHRISTIE HOUR, 1982 THE SCOOP, AND BEHIND THE SCENES, 1983 (with others) WHILE THE LIGHT LASTS AND OTHER STORIES, 1997 - Kirstun arvoitus ja muita kertomuksia (suomentanut Jukka Saarikivi, 1999) THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES AND THE SECRET ADVERSARY, 1998 AGATHA CHRISTIE'S SECRET NOTEBOOKS, 2009 - Agatha Christien salaiset muistikirjat (suomentanut Risto Raitio, 2010)

15. THE SECRED ADVERSARY, 1922 / Die Abenteuer G.M.B.H., 1928, dir. by Fred Sauer THE MURDER OF ROGER ACROYD, 1926 / Alibi, 1931, dir. by Leslie Hiscott ; TV film 2000, dir. by Andrew Grieve THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE, 1930 / TV film, 1986, dir. by Julian Amyes ; TV film 2004, dir. by Charles Palmer LORD EDGWARE DIES, 1933 / Lord Edgware dies, 1931, dir. by Henry Edwards ; TV film 1999, dir. by Brian Farnham, starring David Suchet, Hugh Fraser MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, 1934 / Film adaptation in 1974, dir. by Sidney Lumet THE A.B.C. MURDERS, 1935 / The alphabet murders, 1966, dir. by Frank Tashlin

16. MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA, 1936 / Film adaptation in 2001, dir. by Tom Glegg, starring David Suchet and Hugh Fraser DEATH ON THE NILE, 1937 / Film adaptation, 1978, dir. by John Guillermin, film scritp by Anthony Shaffer ; TV film 2004, dir by Andy Wilson APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH, 1938 / Film adaptation in 1988, dir. by Michael Winner, film script by Anthony Shaffer TEN LITTLE NIGGERS, 1939 / And then there were none, 1945, dir.by René Clair ; Ten little indians, 1965, dir. by George Pollock ; Ten little indians, 1975, dir. by Peter Collinson ; Ten little indians, 1989, dir. by Alan Birkinshaw EVIL UNDER SUN, 1941 / Film adaptations: 1982, dir. by Guy Hamilton, film script by Anthony Schaffer ; 2001, dir. by Brian Farnham, starring David Suchet and Hugh Fraser THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY, 1942 / TV film, 2004, dir. by Andy Wilson TAKEN AT THE FLOOD, 1948 / TV film, 2005, dir. by Andy Wilson WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, 1948 / Film adaptation in 1957, dir. by Billy Wilder MRS. GINTY'S DEAD, 1951 / Murder most foul, 1964, dir. by George Pollock AFTER THE FUNERAL, 1953 / Murder at the Gallop, 1963, dir. by George Pollock 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON, 1957 / Murder she said, 1962, dir. by George Pollock ; TV film 1987, dir. by Martyn Friend ; TV film 2004, dir. by Andy Wilson

17. The first part of the novel (a little over a third) is an effective psychological thriller as the family and the victim are introduced, principally through the perspective of Sarah King and Dr. Gerard, who discuss the behaviour of the family. Mrs. Boynton is sadistic and domineering, traits that (it is suggested) may have influenced her choice of original profession: prison warden. Sarah is attracted to Raymond Boynton, while Jefferson Cope admits to wanting to take Nadine Boynton away from her husband, Lennox Boynton, and the influence of her mother-in-law. Having been thwarted in her desire to free the young Boyntons, Sarah confronts Mrs. Boynton whose apparent reply is a strange threat: "Ive never forgotten anything – not an action, not a name, not a face." When the party reaches Petra, Mrs. Boynton uncharacteristically sends her family away from her for a period. Later, she is found dead with a needle puncture in her wrist.Petra

18. Poirot claims that he can solve the mystery within twenty-four hours simply by interviewing the suspects. During these interviews he establishes a timeline that seems impossible: Sarah King places the time of death considerably before the times at which various of the family members claim last to have seen the victim alive. Attention is focused on a hypodermic syringe that has seemingly been stolen from Dr. Gerards tent and later replaced. The poison administered to the victim is believed to be digitoxin: something that she already took medicinally.digitoxin During a protracted denouement, Poirot explains how each member of the family has, in turn, discovered Mrs. Boynton to be dead and, suspecting another family member, failed to report the fact. In reality, none of the family would have needed to murder the victim with a hypodermic, since an overdose could much more effectively have been administered in her medicine. This places the suspicion on one of the outsiders.denouement

19. The murderess is revealed to be Lady Westholme who, previous to her marriage, had been incarcerated in the prison in which the victim was once a warden. It was to Lady Westholme, and not to Sarah, that Mrs. Boynton had addressed that peculiar threat; the temptation to acquire a new subject to torture had been too great for her to resist. Disguised as an Arab servant she had committed the murder and then relied upon the suggestibility of Miss Pierce to lay two pieces of misdirection that had concealed her role in the murder. Lady Westholme, eavesdropping in an adjoining room, overhears that her criminal history is about to be revealed to the world and commits suicide. The family, free at last, take up happier lives: Sarah marries Raymond; Carol marries Jefferson; and Ginevra takes up a successful career as a stage actress - she also marries Dr. Gerard.