Christie Agatha - Agatha Christie: the finished portrait

Agatha Christies novels and collections of short stories (translated into all the worlds major languages) have recorded sales in excess of 2.3 billion copies, which is exceeded only by those of the Holy Bible. Her characters are equally famous throughout the world and have achieved the status of super sleuths! But what of Agatha herself, their creator, the brains behind the legendary Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple? What is known about her?

David Suchet, the consummately brilliant portrayer of Hercule Poirot in numerous television dramas, who one might imagine would know more than most, is on record as saying, I dont know who she is. Perhaps for this he may be forgiven, for throughout her life, Agatha remained a quiet, self-contained and retiring person who shunned publicity and rarely gave an interview. When you dont do a thing well, it is better not to attempt it, dont you think?

Discovering the real Agatha is a challenging, but by no means impossible task, and in order to do so it is necessary to employ such detective skills as might be worthy of her very own sleuths, Marple and Poirot. This is because, as with her detective novels, clues vital to the unravelling of the greatest mystery of them all, that of the author herself, are to be found in her writings, and in particular in the novels which she wrote under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.

By her own account, Agatha Christie had, in the main, a happy, secure, and fulfilled childhood, albeit punctuated by periods of loneliness. She was brought up in Torquay in the beautiful county of Devonshire, partook of that towns cultural activities, and made frequent excursions to Dartmoor a place of mists and mystery, immortalized by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in TheHoundoftheBaskervilles (which inspired her in her own writing). Later, she travelled to the Continent and became fluent in the French language and familiar with that countrys customs. Her parents encouraged her in music and drama, and she also had access to her fathers extensive library of classical novels. These experiences, and in particular the period she spent working in the dispensary of her local hospital during the First World War (where she familiarized herself with poisons), would stand her in good stead when it came to writing her famous detective stories featuring Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Parker Pyne, Tommy and Tuppence, and others. These would make her name known throughout the world.

Throughout her childhood, Agatha suffered from recurrent bad dreams, featuring a terrifying figure whom she called The Gunman and whom she only managed to rid herself of in middle life. This torment is, perhaps, best reflected in her novel UnfinishedPortrait, written under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Ostensibly fiction, this, in reality, is the story of Agatha herself, in all its harrowing and lurid detail hence the title of this volume AgathaChristie: TheFinishedPortrait.

Agatha had been brought up to have certain expectations: her principal professed aim in life being to achieve a happy marriage. However, having been launched into the world of the adult, her dreams would be shattered, and in such a brutal way as to temporarily unhinge her mind. As she herself admitted, her early life had been too sheltered. She had been too cocooned, and once the chrysalis had metamorphosed into a butterfly, the light of day proved too strong for it to bear.

An explanation for Agathas bad dreams which psychiatrists call night terrors is offered, and also for the means by which she finally overcame them. Also for her, seemingly, bizarre and inexplicable behaviour on the famous occasion of her disappearance for eleven days in December 1926, by which time life had become so stressful for her that she felt she could go on no longer. Why did she abandon her motor car, leaving behind inside it a fur coat, on what was a bitterly cold winters night? Why did she adopt a false name, and claim that she came from Cape Town, South Africa? Why did she fail to recognize a photograph of her own daughter, or her husband when she was reunited with him? Was she telling deliberate lies, acting out an elaborate hoax in a cynical attempt to sell more books? Was this an attempt by her to punish her husband Archie, whom she knew was about to leave her? Or was there a deeper reason, whereby she became the victim of circumstances completely beyond her control? AgathaChristie: TheFinishedPortrait is an attempt to discover the truth.