In the original dust jacket. Grey cloth binding with black title on the spine.

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•          Note: This book carries a £5.00 discount to those that subscribe to the F.B.A. mailing list

•        ** Shortlisted for the @CrimeFest H.R.F. Keating Award **

• ”A smart and highly entertaining portrait of a literary powerhouse” – THE TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR

• ”A riveting portrait”– GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR

• ”Christie lovers should read this biography for the same reason they read her novels.” – The Times

• ”A model of how to combine biographical information, analysis and literary criticism into a propulsive narrative” – Daily Telegraph

• ”Worsley”s book excels in bringing a broader historical perspective to Christie”s life and work, and her enthusiasm is infectious.” – Observer

• Ms Worsley herself writes engagingly… She combines an almost militant support for her subject with a considered analysis of her books and plays.” – Economist                                                                           
• ”Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was.”

Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was ”just” an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn”t? As Lucy Worsley says, ”She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern”. She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why – despite all the evidence to the contrary – did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? She was born in 1890 into a world which had its own rules about what women could and could not do. Lucy Worsley”s biography is not just of an internationally renowned bestselling writer. It”s also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman. With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley”s biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was – truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.

Review: I read this after seeing Lucy Worsley’s documentary about Agatha Christie. She had a fascinating life. Apart from being extremely well-known for her books, she is also famous, or infamous for going missing for a few weeks after her husband left her for another woman. She was all over the newspapers as she could not be found and was feared abducted or even murdered. The fact she was discovered at a fancy hotel in Torquay makes the story a bit banal but she never discussed it ever so for decades people have wondered what happened – did she have a nervous breakdown or strange memory loss? Who knows, it’s just one of many interesting facts about her. I’ve read a few of her books and there’ s no doubting her talent as a writer – she was less successful at paying her taxes and got herself into several fixes over the years. It’s a very interesting book about one of our most illustrious authors. Well worth a read.

I, Lucy Worsley, was For ages I was Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, now an ambassador for the charity. As well as writing history books, I present the (really excellent) crime history podcast LadyKillers on BBC Radio Four and BBC Sounds, and occasionally present history programmes for BBC Two and PBS. My most recent book, AGATHA CHRISTIE, A VERY ELUSIVE WOMAN was a Sunday Times number one bestseller in the UK, and I’m working now on a new secret project. I’m on lots of social media, and I have a weekly newsletter ‘My Life in the Past’