Well Crafted…
Bursting with detail and snippets, a well crafted and readable biography of Christie from an enthusiast. Interesting and engaging from start to finish, even if the reader is already well versed in the life and writings of Christie. To be noted that this is a fully updated version of the earlier ‘Agatha Christie- An English Mystery’.

As the title suggests, a biography of the world famous author. But like no other biography I’ve ever read, endless with copious notes/references, details of Agatha Christie’s books and how certain situations or conversations might have been based on her own life. I enjoy biographies when they inform the reader about the subject’s life - ie they were born here, went to this and that place, achieved this, married him or her. Not to hear so much minutiae about everyone else, or to wade through so much of it before anything interesting turns up. Sorry to say I had to skim read so much of this book to get to anything worth reading about. It would have been nice to see photographs of Agatha, her two husbands, Rosalind, homes and Torquay as it was then. Obviously the author did lots of research but just included far too much of it in this book!

Laura Thompson's hefty and well-researched biography of Agatha Christie focuses largely on a psychological study of Agatha and her relationships - rather like Poirot, she is interested in "the psychology of the individual". She also mounts a vigorous defence of Christie's work against those who have sought to diminish and misrepresent it (while acknowledging that it does, at times, vary in quality).

Thompson has had access to a lot of material and her book draws heavily not only on Agatha's letters, notebooks, etc but also on interviews with key people such as Agatha's daughter, Rosalind (since deceased) - as well as numerous extracts from the books themselves, most notably the strongly autobiographical Mary Westmacott novel, Unfinished Portrait. (Beware spoilers - numerous details of various plots are revealed.)

She devotes a lot of time to the famous 1926 disappearance and presents a theory which seems plausible and accords with the facts as they are known. I've never bought into the absurd "amnesia" idea which the family firmly stuck to - far more likely that Agatha, certainly in a state of great distress about husband Archie's request for a divorce, simply took off on her own for a while, perhaps at least partly in the hope of bringing him to his senses. When she was found exactly where she had said she would be - at a Yorkshire spa - albeit under a false name (a possibility which had apparently occurred to no-one), she was deemed to have played the public for a fool and opprobrium was unleashed. (Imagine how she would have fared in these days of social media!) I agree with Laura Thompson as to the particular disapproval heaped upon women who have apparently transgressed.

Agatha's snobberies and prejudices, as they appear in her work and her life, are characterised with some justice as both products of her time and as more complex and nuanced than is often supposed, although the author lost me somewhat with a comparison to the present day "mistreatment" of Brexiteers! I also felt she harped rather too much on Agatha's weight gain and supposed loss of youthful attractiveness, with snide asides such as "...[she was] a woman of substance.... a little too much substance, by then". Archie's unfaithfulness is deemed a consequence of this.

While I didn't necessarily agree with Laura Thompson's position on everything, it's undoubtedly an interesting and insightful read and I learned a lot I hadn't known about Agatha's life (indeed I realised I really hadn't known that much).

I'm inspired, anyway to reread all the Christies in publication order (while I'm sure I've read them all at some point, it's been at least thirty years ago in some cases). I've even downloaded an app to keep track. So watch this space.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

I love Agatha Christie and having first read her as a teenager, I still find myself going back to her books and rereading so was thrilled to be able to read this

I loved it. There were some parts of her life I was aware of like the disappearance but to be able to read in depth was a revelation to me

Anyone interested in her as a person not just the writing would love this too

Superb !

I chose to read this book because I enjoy Agatha Christie as a writer, and when I saw this it occurred to me that I really know nothing about her. In fact, I know very little about most of the authors of the books I read and I rarely read non-fiction books or autobiographies. So, I thought I would give it a try.

I'll start by saying that there are certainly some interesting parts of this book. The structure of the writing is good and interesting to read. I know so much more about Agatha Christie and her life than I did before, and indeed I think I know her in more detail now than I had ever imagined I would (or would want to).

I especially liked the section about her disappearance, which I had heard about before but didn't really know what had happened. I also liked hearing about her connection with archaeology and her time spent on the digs, as this was another thing I had no idea about. It was also very interesting to read about her tax issues and money troubles. It saddens me to think that she has brought so much joy to readers (and indeed those who have enjoyed films, theatre and TV based on her books as well) but she didn't really get to reap the full rewards for all her hard work. It really doesn't seem fair.

So there were definitely many parts of the book I enjoyed reading. But I did struggle to get through it, and it took me a long time to read. It was extremely long, and I really thought it would have been more enjoyable for me at about half the length. There was a lot of repetition of quotes and points that the author made, which I thought were unnecessary. It is very thorough in some aspects but quite sparse in other areas. It says little about Agatha's later life. I'm not surprised that it is very biased towards Agatha herself and does not condone those who are not fans of her work, but I didn't feel there was a need to include so many of the fiercely one-sided opinions of the author.

The book contains many quotes from Agatha's own autobiography and also her book Unfinished Portrait, which was written under her famous pseudonym of Mary Westmacott. I have been inspired by reading those quotes to seek out and read these books as I am still interested in Agatha. And I have learned more about her, which is what I wanted, so this book was not a complete loss. But by the end I'm sorry to say that I was relieved to have finished it. For that reason I couldn't recommend it to anyone.

A must read for any Agatha Christie's fan. It's a mix of biography and bibliography and it was an interesting, entertaining and engrossing read.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Dnf at 30% what a waste of resources . Agatha's autobiography is a masterpiece and this book oftentimes quotes from that and also from Agatha's novels that reflect her life. Is the author quote tweeting?


* I received an e-ARC

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
Having read Agatha Christie all my life this was such a treat to get a bit more in depth information on this amazing lady I highly recommend this OUTSTANDING book to any Agatha Christie fans.

#AgathaChristie #NetGalley
Its a biography of bestseller Agatha Christie. And there's no doubt that this book is wonderful. If you're a fan of Agatha and want to know more about her life then this book is good for you.

A wonderful homage to Christie that is part biography, part bibliography, part discussion of why she remains so popular. Thompson's ratings of the books is subjective - and interesting for that very reason (I'd never have put Five Little Pigs as one of Christie's best books, for example). She's also excellent on giving examples of where Christie's writing is underrated: she may be 'popular' but no-one is as deft in their characterisation as she is. Thompson perhaps plays down the 'puzzle' aspect: I still think Christie is more adept than anyone at the sly sleight of hand. Do watch out if you haven't read the books as this is full of unmarked spoilers. Otherwise, a joy for any Christie fan.