Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley

'Christie lovers should read this biography for the same reason they read her novels.' - The Times 'A model of how to combine biographical information, analysis and literary criticism into a propulsive narrative' - Daily Telegraph 'Worsley's book excels in bringing a broader historical perspective to Christie's life and work, and her enthusiasm is infectious.' - Observer 'Paint(s) an intriguing picture of Christie.' - Guardian Ms Worsley herself writes engagingly... She combines an almost militant support for her subject with a considered analysis of her books and plays.' - Economist 'Admirably scrupulous' - New York Times 'Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was.' Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was 'just' an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? As Lucy Worsley says, 'She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern'. She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why - despite all the evidence to the contrary - did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? She was born in 1890 into a world which had its own rules about what women could and couldn't do. Lucy Worsley's biography is not just of an internationally renowned bestselling writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman. With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley's biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was - truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.

Considering how central Christie remains in the mystery genre it always seemed odd to me that of the many books and articles written about her so few have bothered to try to delve beyond myth, rumour, and gossip. Refreshingly, Worsley's sparkling biography does. As importantly, she explores Christie's life and career choices in their social and political contexts, which creates a wonderfully layered narrative. Among the highlights is Worsley's sensitive and sober unfolding of the much-sensationalised disappearance, in which she lays bare the actions and evasions of those with a stake in preserving their own reputations at the cost of damaging a victim's credibility.

I do feel the second half of the biography loses steam ; it also falls into the common habit of painting a subject's older age in a tone of melancholic decline. Also, while racist elements and negative portrayals of Jews do get mentioned, it seemed to me in a scattered fashion. I would have liked to see a section devoted to an investigation of the longevity of some of these attitudes in and outside her work, especially as in so many ways Christie appears to have fashioned herself into, and relished being, a modern woman.