A passion for poisons

During the First World War Agatha served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in Torquay (right). In June 1916, at the age of 25, she transferred to the dispensary, where she learnt all there was to know about how certain chemicals can cure – and kill.

During her work she came into contact with a local pharmacist, whom Agatha has only identified as a Mr P. The man, who had a ‘nice pink face’ and seemed like a respectable citizen, revealed to her that he carried around a cube of the South American poison curare in his pocket. The substance, used to tip poison arrows in certain indigenous communities, was fatal if it entered the bloodstream. ‘Do you know why I carry it in my pocket?’ Mr P asked her. When she answered that she did not, he responded, ‘It makes me feel powerful.’ The memory stayed with her and later she used this detail in her characterisation of Zachariah Osborne in her 1961 novel The Pale Horse.

It was while she was working in the dispensary that she started to think seriously about writing a detective novel. ‘Since I was surrounded by poisons, perhaps it was natural that death by poisoning should be the method I

selected,’ she wrote in her memoir. Poisons – everything from arsenic, belladonna and cyanide through to Veronal – have since featured in dozens of Agatha Christie novels. ‘I specialise in murders of quiet, domestic interest,’ she once said. ‘Give me a nice deadly phial to play with and I am happy.’