Agatha Christie

Unsung History

Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time, whose books have been outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. You can probably name several of her books and recurring characters, but how much do you know about Agatha Christie herself? In our final British History episode, we look at Agatha Christie’s life, in the hospital dispensary, at home with her daughter, abroad on archeological digs, and behind the typewriter.

Joining me in this episode to help us learn more about Agatha Christie is historian Dr. Lucy Worsley, OBE, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces and BBC presenter and author of the new book, Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, which will be published in the United States on September 6, 2022.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode image is Agatha Christie as a young woman, circa 1910. It is in the public domain and available via Wikimedia Commons. The audio interlude is “Mystery Waltz,” written by Raymond Scott and performed by Raymond Scott and His Orchestra in 1953. The audio is in the public domain and available via Archive.org.

Additional Sources:

• AgathaChristie.com: The home of Agatha Christie
• “A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley,” BBC Select TV Mini Series, 2013.
• “When the World’s Most Famous Mystery Writer Vanished,” by Tina Jordan, The New York Times, June 11, 2019.
• “The Essential Agatha Christie,” by Tina Jordan, The New York Times, October 25, 2020.
• “Why Agatha Christie is even more awesome than you thought,” by Margaret Sessa-Hawkins, PBS NewsHouse, September 15, 2015.

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