Solving the mystery of Agatha Christie...
HISTORIAN LUCY WORSLEY UNCOVERS THE SECRETS OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST OF ALL TIME
AGATHA Christie has defined the detective genre for over a century, but the real woman behind the literary persona has remained a mystery.
In this enthralling series, historian Lucy Worsley cracks the clues and investigates Agatha herself, an enigmatic and complex woman who became the most successful novelist of all time.
Lucy argues that you can’t understand the works of Christie without understanding where this flair for writing came from.
She says: “How did her own dark psychology, her anxieties and experiences fuel her writing? What made this woman the best-selling novelist in the world?”
Beginning with the author’s early life, growing up in Torquay, she discovers that Agatha was haunted by dreams of a sinister, imaginary gunman.
Her great grandson James Prichard reveals she came from a creative and happy family, but was hugely impacted by the death of her father. Lucy discovers that Christie’s life and work reflects the dynamic history of the 20th century as she witnessed seismic upheaval.
She lived through two World Wars, as well as revolutions in scientific understanding and social change. Attitudes to everything from class and gender to race, empire, science and technology were questioned and challenged. Christie ploughed everything into her books, holding a mirror to 20th century Britain. “She challenged the expectations of the Victorian age,” says Lucy. “There’s much more to this elusive novelist than meets the eye. She was a pioneering and radical writer and woman.”