An Autobiography / Agatha Christie

 

Agatha Christie: An Autobiography by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since I am gradually reading my way through Agatha Christie's novels, I felt it would be interesting to also read her account of her life history and it was an interesting experience indeed. She chose a very casual and confiding style which is very easy to get into.

However, it became obvious that just as we curate our social media accounts to show our best selves to the world, Christie also picked and chose what she was willing to reveal. The portion dealing with her divorce, for instance, downplays her emotional turmoil. The early sections of the book make clear that her childhood was rather Victorian, making divorce a very real personal failure. She never mentions her disappearance after a quarrel with her husband, lasting over a week and engendering a hunt by police.

Despite her careful selection of stories, much of the woman's character shines through. She was very creative, even as a child imagining friends for herself and adventures to share with them. She didn't give herself much credit for observing other people, though how she could write characters like Miss Marple without having a sharp understanding of human frailty? And human strengths too, for that matter.

I had to admire her determination to put her life back together again after the trauma of divorce and her enthusiasm for her trip on her own to Baghdad. Her obvious love of the Middle East is endearing and must have been one of the factors that attracted her second husband. Sharing his archaeological fieldwork seems to have suited her completely.

I was struck with her description of her writing process late in the book. She describes it as waiting, knowing that things were happening, then, just like surfing earlier in her life, timing it right to jump up and ride the wave to a successful finish. Traveling, surfing, house hunting, or writing, Dame Agatha seems to have treated life as an amusing adventure.

I'm glad to have read her version, but have Laura Thompson's biography queued up, ready to give me a different angle on this fascinating woman.


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