Born on 15th September, 1890, Agatha Christie is best known for her series of crime novels and detective short stories. The Guinness Book of World Records holds Christie as the best-selling crime novelist of her time having sold approximately 4 billion copies of her books worldwide.
Some interesting facts about Agatha Christie are:

Agatha Christie was challenged by one of her sisters, Madge, after which she wrote her first detective story. Her earning on her first published story was £25. She wrote 80 novels during her entire lifetime.

She faced rejection by publishers 6 times before having her first novel eventually published in 1920.

During her early years, Christie was home-schooled by a series of different governesses and by her own mother.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is her first novel in which Agatha Christie introduces one of the most famous characters in detective novel history, HerculePoirot.

Agatha Christie admits to have created Miss Marple partly in the likeness of her grandmother, and the former is said to have appeared in 12 of her Agatha Christie series novels and 5 short story collections.

Christie is said to have thought up plot ideas while soaking herself up in a bathtub, – the typical large Victorian bathtubs of her time while munching apples. She even claimed to have later given up on that habit after becoming dissatisfied with the new bathtub styles.

She had also written some plays. Three of her plays have run simultaneously in London’s West End ‘“ the only female dramatist on record.
The World’s longest running play Moustrap has been written by Christie.

Her romances were bitter-sweet stories and were written under the pen-name of Mary Westmacott.

The final Miss Marple novel although written in 1939 was published much later in 1976. For all those years, the manuscript was kept in a safe for fear of being destroyed during the World War II.

Poirot, another of her central character in her series has appeared in 33 of her novels and 51 short stories. Hercule Poirot was killed off in the novel Curtains in 1975 and a full page obituary was published by the New York Times for Poirot ‘“ the only fictional character to have received such respect by a newspaper.

Strangling by Ukulele string or raincoat belt, crushing by a bear-shaped marble clock, stabbing with a corn knife or ornamental Tunisian dagger, drowning in an apple tub, electrocuting by a rigged chessboard and most commonly poison are some of the typical methods employed by Agatha Christie to kill off characters in her novels.

Agatha Chrisitie had worked in a hospital pharmacy during the Second World War where she acquired knowledge about different people which later went on to serve as stories for her upcoming novels.

In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days, presumably after learning of her husband’s affair with another woman. On being searched, her abandoned vehicle was found by a lakeside where one of her fictional characters had met his death. She was found in a hotel having been recognised by her guests and living under the name of a different woman. The incident was never spoken about by her to the press of in her autobiography.

Christie remains one of the most celebrated crime novelists and teenagers and adults enjoy reading her escapades alike.