[Review] Lucy Worsley: 'Agatha Christie'

Writer and historian Lucy Worsley (1973) has written 'Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman', a passionate and very readable biography of Agatha Christie (1890-1976). Surely, there have been other biographies that covered the same subject and the question is if Lucy Worsley would be able to add something new to these.

Until Worsley's book appeared, Laura Thomson's 'Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life' was considered to give the best insight into the life and times of Agatha Christie. Worsley certainly gives me the impression that she tried to get into the mind of the great writer. What drove Agatha Christie and what held her back?

"The psychological approach - that's the only thing nowadays," Colonel Easterbrook says in 'A Murder is Announced' and he was right, although he was portrayed by Agatha Christie as somewhat dim. Worsley uses Christie's books to get an insight into the mind of the author, because every writer puts something of herself into the text. You write, they say, what you know about.

Worsley had to cover Christie’s 1926 mysterious disappearance. No biography of Agatha Christie would be complete without it. What Worsley does do when discussing it is to build a convincing argument that Agatha Christie had temporarily lost her memory due to the huge emotional stress of the breakdown of her marriage and the discovery of her husband’s affair. She actually couldn’t remember what had happened to her. The psychological term for this sort of temporary memory loss is fugue (Latin: flight). Your brain tries to protect and heal itself by shutting down.

What emerged from this biography was that there existed several versions of Agatha Christie. The Christie the public knew was shy, introvert, and guarded. In private she liked (extended) family gatherings and to spend her money on houses and she amassed quite a few of those.

Worsley sprinkles interesting factoids thoughout the book and that makes the 'Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman' so readable. It amazed me is that Lucy Worsley could find the time to gather all the information about Agatha Christie. Remember that Worsley is a historian, author, television presenter, and curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

Lucy Worsley wrote a well-researched biography and it is a fascinating read, looking at Christie in an almost tender, loving way.