The Famous Writer Agatha Christie Grew Up an Uneducated and Boring Girl 0 10

Agatha Christie’s detective novels (1890-1976) have captivated readers for over a century, but even 50 years after her death, she remains a mystery. In a 1955 BBC interview, some secrets of the writer were revealed, who was as complex as the plots of her works.

Agatha Christie managed to hide in plain sight astonishingly well. She appeared as a kind-hearted elderly lady in a fur coat who loved gardening, good food, family, and dogs.

Despite her harmless appearance, the writer took pleasure in concocting intricate stories of poisonings, betrayals, and bloodshed that later became bestsellers. She rarely spoke about how her inventive mind worked.

Christie was very shy, but in 1955 she agreed to give a rare interview in her London apartment for a BBC radio program.

In it, the writer discussed how her unconventional childhood ignited her imagination, why writing plays was easier than novels, and how she could finish a book in three months.

Agatha Miller (her maiden name) was born into a well-off family in 1890 and was mostly educated at home. When asked how she started writing, Christie replied: "I attribute it to the fact that I never had an education." [...] Eventually, I did go to school in Paris when I was 16 or so. But until then, apart from learning the basics of arithmetic, I had no education."

Christie describes her childhood as filled with splendid idleness, but even then she had an insatiable appetite for reading. "I made up stories and played different roles, and there’s nothing better than boredom to make you write. So by the time I was 16 or 17, I had written quite a few short stories and one long, dull novel," she said.