Agatha Christie: The Sunday Times Bestseller
£0.90
‘A smart and highly entertaining portrait of a literary powerhouse’
– THE TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR
‘A riveting portrait’
– GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR
***
‘Worsley’s sparkling biography brings a fresh eye to Christie’s life and work, firmly busting the myth that she, or her novels, were cosy.’ Daily Mail
‘Every Christie fan should read this’ – The Times
‘Shows the Queen of Crime in a new light.’ – Daily Telegraph
‘Worsley’s book excels in bringing a broader historical perspective to Christie’s life and work, and her enthusiasm is infectious.’ – Observer
‘Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was.’
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.
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (8 Sept. 2022) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 23892 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 498 pages |
by jac
The use of multiple sources is most impressive.This book sees Agatha Christie as a whole person and explores every facet of her life.Her well known disappearance in the twenties is examined in an analytical but sympathetic manner.
by doggo
This is a very good book. For Christie fans, I’d say it’s one of the best. Lucy Worsley has done some excellent research.
by Carol Irene Lawrence
Just perfect thank you
by Sharron Joy Reads
A biography of the life of the Queen of Crime. This is impeccably researched, beautifully written and a fascinating read.
From Agatha’s unconventional late Victorian childhood, to her strained first marriage, her struggles with feelings of abandonment and loneliness, her books (she was a prolific and singularly focused writer), her mental health, her happy second marriage, her money worries and her joy for life. She lived through remarkable times, from an affluent middle class upbringing to near bankruptcy, two world wars and the changing face of British life but she also loved to travel the world and did extensively.
This is a story of a brilliant, complicated, shy, woman of her time and yet ahead of it in a lot of ways, who wrote incredible stories that I, for one, will never stop rereading!
by Kindle Customer
Having been a reader of Agatha Christie books for 50 years this book by Lucy Worsley was a must read for me. There is a lot I already new about Agatha Christie but many gaps were filled with this thorough and entertaining story of her life. Having seen the Lucy Worsley TV series I had gained knowledge of facets her life that I was not aware and I am also a great lover of the Christie films and TV series. I am sure other Christie fans will want to add this to their collection.
by Amazon Customer
Lucy Worsley (mostly) believes her subject’s account of her life while reporting how other biographers have questioned her veracity or motives, especially regarding the events of 1926 when she “disappeared”, which is why I describe her biography as generous and balanced.
I have rediscovered Agatha Christie’s novels late in life and found them enjoyable and relaxing, albeit somewhat quaint, and Lucy Worsley explains her very convincingly. It is a very enjoyable read.
by Pony Tails
I bought the audible audio book which is read by the author. Very enjoyable biography which threads in Christie’s stories and characters into the narrative of her own life.
by Kindle Customer
An excellent look at the life of one brilliant author by yet another including one of the more sympathetic explorations of her famous disappearance