Agatha Christie: Legendary Poirot and Miss Marple author's special connection with Edinburgh
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We all love a good ‘who dunnit’, and no one knew that better than the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, who wrote 66 detective novels, 14 short stories as well as the Mousetrap, the longest running play in West End history. She created two of the world’s most famous and beloved detectives, Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple.
Agatha is still the best selling novelist of all time, and her books are beaten only by the Bible and the works of Shakespeare in global sales. She inspired an entire genre, dominating the Golden Age of crime fiction. And she had a deep and personal link with Edinburgh.
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Hide AdIn September, 1930, Agatha Christie married her husband, famed archaeologist Max Mallowan, at St Cuthbert’s just off Princes Street’s west end. A copy of the wedding certificate can be found with the National Records of Scotland.
She had met the handsome Max, who was 13 years her junior, when she was travelling through the Middle East after her first husband, Colonel Archibald Christie, left her for another woman. The international travel inspired the crime writer to write classics including Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express.
Her travels helped her recover from the shock she had when Archie walked out on her, not long after her mother’s death. In 1926, Agatha was struggling through this difficult time. She disappeared for 11 days, shocking the country and sparking a manhunt to trace her. She eventually turned up in a hotel in Harrogate, with no memory of what had happened or where she had been.
Agatha’s second marriage was considered a very happy one, with the couple travelling the world due to Max’s work, and lasted until her death in 1976.