Reviewed by Ian Lipke
Lucy Worsley has recently produced a biography of the writer, Agatha Christie, in which she shows unequivocally that the world in which her subject was born in 1890 had rules that defined what women could and could not do. Christie’s world, for example, frowned severely on women who had the temerity to hold a job. Christie defied this barrier and became an internationally recognised, best-selling author. Worsley explains how her subject defied convention, and demonstrates that there is enough in the Christie story to reveal authoritativeness and entertainment, and a tough, hard-hearted mindfulness to make Christie’s readers realise what a pioneer the crime and mystery writer was.
Having provided a version of Christie’s childhood, including a realisation that Agatha did not necessarily focus on hard work, Worsley takes up the story of Agatha as a young woman. There is a human touch in the story of Agatha wishing that her breasts were not so flat and then later in life when she was well rounded, cursing a society that now preferred a flat chest. There is an exposé of Agatha’s first marriage to war-hero, Archie, and his subsequent affair with Agatha’s friend, Nicole (for which Agatha had to take the blame). There is a fine pen picture of Max Mallowan, Agatha’s second husband, the man who became the love of her life.
This is a book that contains so much information of every sort that it is impossible to record it all. Readers learn the details of the writing of her first published novel. It was not the strict catalogue of events but a leisurely wander through the author’s thoughts to firm up on a suitable plot. Her first book was The Mysterious Affair at Styles. This book introduces characters who were to form many of the staple characters that Christie was to rely on. There was Hercule Poirot who had his origins in the flood of Belgian refugees who settled in England to avoid Hitler. Because so many heroes were shown to be super-fit specimens, Christie selected just the opposite, a man who relied on his brain but let the physical aspects of his body wither away. The physical specimen is represented by British army officer named Arthur Hastings, a man dedicated to drawing the wrong conclusions, a friend of Poirot but a trial of his patience.
Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard makes his entry to the Christie literature with the Styles story, and one wonders what view was shared by Christie’s contemporaries when Christie herself holds a view of a police force whose most active warrior lacks so many investigative skills. It is only much later that we are introduced to the indomitable Miss Marple. Worsley spends some time highlighting inadequacies of the servant class and the racism that is visible in Christie’s writing.
Worsley has a meandering style and would have introduced Poirot, Japp and Hastings in an incidental fashion. This was her chosen style. All the favourite characters receive mention in Worsley’s book. The biography is a long conversation, written Woman’s Day style and, choked with information. It is a very pleasant book to read, nevertheless.
(2022)
by Lucy Worsely
Hodder & Stoughton/Hachette Aust
ISBN: 978 152930 388 9
$34.99; 432 pp