‘THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF AGATHA CHRISTIE!’
The historian on the life of the crime writer…
As the writer of 75 novels, numerous plays and short stories, Agatha Christie is not only the undisputed queen of murder mysteries, but also the most successful novelist of all time, outsold only by Shakespeare and the Bible.
However, the author herself has long remained an enigma, so in a new three-part documentary, historian Lucy Worsley tries to discover the real woman behind the public image.
‘I’m investigating the mysterious case of Agatha Christie!’ says Lucy. ‘In her stories, no one is ever quite who they seem to be and that’s true of the author herself. In her work, the answers are always there, hidden in plain sight, so could it be that the same is true of her own life?’
Lucy begins by travelling to Torquay in Devon, where Christie was born and raised, to find out about her early life and uncover the origins of her ingenious talent for murder mysteries.
‘There’s much more to this enigmatic and elusive novelist than meets the eye,’ says Lucy. ‘What made this woman the bestselling novelist in the world?
I want to uncover the true Agatha Christie, explore how the changes in her lifetime affected her writing and show you that she was a pioneering radical writer and woman.’
✣ Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen is on BBC2
‘SHE WAS PIONEERING AND RADICAL’