Book Review: "Agatha Christie" by Lucy Worsley (Pt.1)

This section covers the introduction all the way through to chapter 12.

Well, perhaps you already know that recently I finished reading Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley after finding it in the shop of the Jane Austen centre just after my birthday. Now, I have moved on to yet another Lucy Worsley biography, yet another well-researched and entertainingly written piece of some considerable detail. Agatha Christie proves so far, to be a wonderful read and, as we press on I hope it will continue to let me into the life and times of one of literature's greatest introverts.

In the introduction, we are introduced to Agatha Christie on a train (no, it wasn't the Orient Express but I would have liked it to be). She has overheard two women talking about her drinking habit, despite Christie herself being teetotal and both of the women have her books on their lap. Lucy Worsley introduces us to the idea of 'Christie for Christmas' in which people would buy each other an Agatha Christie novel for the Christmas period. Worsley discusses how Agatha Christie became one of the best-selling novelists, the fact that Mousetrap is still running to this day and how Agatha Christie was something of a myth, a legend and yet - we know so much about her. We are about to be taken on a very entertaining journey after all.

In the opening chapter, Lucy Worsley discusses the birth and raising of little Agatha. We get everything from the fact that she was desperately introverted and had a deep and rich inner-life, to the fact that her eyes were described as green, blue or even grey. She was an incredible girl with a great sense of home - and was someone who would covet houses in this way in the future. What Lucy Worsley is really showing us though is that Agatha Christie was more than just a writer - she was questioning her position as a woman (or at that time, girl) in the Victorian/Edwardian world. It didn't please her to be in no position at all, so she created one.

During the next few chapters, we witness the darkness that lurks within the girl that is Agatha. She seems to notice evil things about the house she lives in whilst simultaneously taking part in extensive physical activity for the time. In Torquay there was much to offer. We learn about the fact that hotels were built and how, meant that Agatha who lived there could often enjoy roller skating and pony riding. Unfortunately though, after living as a class of people who had servants - Agatha's family would fall into financial ruin. Lucy Worsley connects this financial ruin to the family's spending habits and the eventual death of Agatha's father - Frederick - when Agatha herself was only 11 years' old.

Agatha is sent off to finishing schools, told she isn't quite the musical performer and dances at balls and in Cairo. She is perceptive, witty and her mother - Clara - thinks she should make a good marriage first and do everything else later. Agatha starts doing everything together though and this proves to take her on a wild ride. Lucy Worsley writes Agatha Christie as a mixture between the usual Edwardian woman and the newer, more free woman. She has all these incredible qualities (apart from being as tall as five feet seven inches), and she comes back from her journey completely covered in marriage proposals - all whilst writing her first book and unfortunately, getting it rejected from publishers. And of course, who should walk into Agatha's life but her future husband - Archibald Christie.

World War One is just around the corner. Archibald is a pilot and Agatha volunteers as a war time nurse. I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed seeing Agatha Christie come out of her shell a bit, but this is definitely where she would have worked with the chemicals that litter her written work later on. Lucy Worsley is great at making these constant connections, having us think about how this writer's lived experience made the perfect backstory of learning towards a career which often involved poisons. Whilst Archibald is away at war and she is working at the hospital, she spends her days off writing her first Poirot novel and putting in what would become the beloved personality of an almost Sherlock Holmes-esque figure. I love the way Lucy Worsley writes about the way in which she nearly ran out of steam writing it.

As we move into chapter 13, I have to say that this book is quite as immersive so far as Lucy Worsley's previous Jane Austen at Home and though I enjoyed the previous one more, this is too a great and well-researched biography.