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An Autobiography Hardcover – November 22, 2011

by Agatha Christie (Author)

114 customer reviews

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Back in print in an all-new edition, is the engaging and illuminating chronicle of the life of the “Queen of Mystery.” Fans of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and readers of John Curran’s fascinating biographies Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks and Murder in the Making will be spellbound by the compelling, authoritative account of one of the world’s most influential and fascinating novelists, told in her own words and inimitable style. The New York Times Book Review calls Christie’s autobiography a “joyful adventure,” saying, “she brings the sense of wonder...to her extraordinary career.”

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Product Details

Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Harper; Har/Com edition (November 22, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062073591
ISBN-13: 978-0062073594
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.7 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4574 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Authors
- #8380 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Women
- #20450 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs

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Customer Reviews

114

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		70%
4 star		18%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		1%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 68 people found the following review helpful

Mystery solved

By Melanie Gilbert VINE VOICE on March 4, 2005

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Although I generally believe that the one story a writer shouldn't write is their own, Agatha Christie's autobiography is the happy exception to this rule.

The famous mystery writer takes much of the mystery out of how she became a writer telling a straightforward story of a fairy-tale childhood that abruptly changed into a grown-up existence of uncertainty, hard-work, determination, pluck and verve. She admits to less ambition than necessity dictated by money and marriage woes.

Christie is a natural storyteller but she is far too polite to admit it outright. Instead, she brings the same hands-off style to her own story as she does to the main characters in her mystery books: that of being caught up in the circumstances of events rather than being driven by them.

Her life story gently unfolds complemented by a dry and self-effacing wit. Christie blends in tidbits of her writing life, including her early efforts, story and character inspirations, why her books are so short, her writing style and routine and her dealings with editors and publishing houses, into the mostly personal narrative.

While it may be a mystery as to whether Christie created or responded to opportunities, there's no mystery that once those opportunities presented themselves Christie seized them and rode them spectacularly to fame and fortune.

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48 of 51 people found the following review helpful

enjoyable read!who knew life could be better than mysteries?

By dazzleink on September 20, 2004

Format: Mass Market Paperback

I picked up Agatha Christie's biography off a dusty shelf in the library... it hadn't been read since 1984, and it still had one of those cards you had to write in names and stamp dates in. Interestingly, I wasn't drawn to the book due to the author. I hadn't even read more than one book by Ms. Christie, and that was in high school for required reading. What drew me to the book was the simple unpretentious title "The Story of My Life". (This is an older copy of the book, not the printing titled Agatha Christie an Autobiography.)It was the first page, the first paragraph in the book,that hooked me.

"One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood. I had a very happy childhood."

If you continue reading you'll have to agree. With tenderness, Agatha recounts sun-filled days at her home Ashfield, describing family and friends (both real and imaginary), servants, and experiences with fond poignancy.

Her father she describes:

"By modern standards my father would probably not be approved of. He was a lazy man.......I don't know what the quality was he had...he had no outstanding characteristics. I think that he had a simple and loving heart, and he really cared for his fellow man."

A family game, when Agatha is older and courting

"We use to have a family game, invented by my sister and a friend of hers- it was called 'Agatha's Husband'. The idea was that they picked two or three of the most repellent strangers in a room, and it was then up to me that I had to choose one of them as my husband, on pain of death or slow torture by the Chinese.Read more ›

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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful

One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors

By Jeanne Tassotto VINE VOICE on June 15, 2006

Format: Hardcover

Often times autobiographies are dull things of interest only to the author or those who may be mentioned in the book, others are glowing brag fests relating how marvelous the subject is, or are filled with juicy gossip about other celebrities. This one is completely different in that Christie did not attempt to write a complete chronicle of her life, or to focus on what the public might want to hear (in fact she deliberately left out the very episode - her disappearance - that most would want to know more about) but instead told about those parts of her life that she was interested in remembering. For example most autobiographies rush through the subject's childhood and focus on the parts of their adult life that made them famous, not so here. Instead Christie takes the first third of her tale to describe her life before she ever thought of Hercule Poirot.

What the reader gets instead of stories about the great and famous is a charming glimpse into the life of a middle-class child born at the end of the Victorian era, her perceptions of a society that was rapidly changing as she grew to young adulthood. She tells about her life as a child in a comfortable household filled with servants, her teenage years with her widowed mother, as a young woman caring for wounded soldiers, as a bride then a single mother through her later years as a successful author and her second, happier marriage to an archaeologist and their travels to the Middle East. She glosses over meeting the Queen but tells at length about various nannies and secretaries that were part of her everyday life.

For fans of Christie it is particularly interesting to learn what inspired certain of her characters or plots, what was occuring in her life while writing some of the novels, to see people or situations that one can recognize in a favorite novel. For anyone interested in life in the early twentieth century this book also gives an insight into that time that is rarely seen.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

Excellent Read

By Domenic M. Ferrante on December 22, 1999

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Agatha Christie's, An Autobiography, is an excellent read. Unlike most books of this type, it is not chronological in the true sense of the word. It's almost as if Dame Agatha is talking to you personally about her life. She jumps from one topic to another much as one would in an ordinary conversation. Thoroughly entertaining!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

Gift

Published 3 days ago by C. Wilson

Marvelous

I have to agree with one of the critics printed in the book. I have loved Christie's writing but now I love the woman behind the story. Read more

Published 20 days ago by Joyce Fuhr

Wonderful Book

Over the past year I've been reading all of Agatha Christie's books in order and have found them to be quite entertaining and often insightful. Read more

Published 26 days ago by Raymond Bial

Five Stars

Delightful!

Published 1 month ago by ac2000

very good. Her writing is amazing and she is so ...

so very, very good. Her writing is amazing and she is so amazingly humble ...

Published 1 month ago by Mary G

A Very Interesting Read

Very interesting, but it got a little long on details a few times. Agatha Christie was such a fascinating woman that any book dealing with her life will have an appeal.

Published 1 month ago by Martha Lander

Delightful dip into another life and time

A meandering and colorful account, Agatha Christie's autobiography is sure to please, whether you've read her novels or not. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Heather

A Visit with Agatha

Lovers of Agatha Christie's writing will enjoy this autobiography. It is not a rigid timelined piece. Read more

Published 3 months ago by L. Higgins

Agatha's Agreeable Autobiography

The masterly mistress of mystery wasn't always forthcoming about her life in this book, but what she did relate is usually charmingly told, easy reading and sometimes amusing. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Harvey Goldenberg

Five Stars

What's not to love about Agatha Christie!!

Published 4 months ago by Gizella M. Gorman