Agatha Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in Devon, England in 1890. Her father was an American stockbroker. Agatha was the youngest of three children. After working as a nurse during World War I, she married Archie Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps.
Christie's debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced one of her most famous characters, the detective Hercule Poirot. She began writing the novel during World War I, partly in response to a bet from her sister Madge that she couldn't write a good detective story, and partly to relieve the monotony of her job at a hospital dispensary. The first three publishers she brought the novel to rejected it, and...
