Editing Agatha Christie (section)

=== 1927–1976: second marriage and later life ===

[[File:Hotel Pera Palace - Istanbul.jpg|thumb|Christie's room at the [[Pera Palace Hotel]] in [[Istanbul]], where the hotel claims she wrote her 1934 novel ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]''|alt=Colour photograph of a hotel room with Christie memorabilia on the walls]]

In January 1927, Christie, looking "very pale", sailed with her daughter and secretary to [[Las Palmas]], Canary Islands, to "complete her convalescence",<ref>{{cite news |date=24 January 1927 |title=Mrs. Christie Leaves |page=1 |work=[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]}}</ref> returning three months later.<ref>[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9438379 Inwards Passenger Lists] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030035258/https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9438379 |date=30 October 2019 }}. [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]], Kew. Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors, BT26/837/112.</ref>{{Refn|Christie's authorised biographer includes an account of specialist psychiatric treatment following Christie's disappearance, but the information was obtained second or third hand after her death.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{rp|148–49, 159}}|group=lower-alpha}} Christie petitioned for divorce and was granted a [[decree nisi]] against her husband in April 1928, which was made absolute in October 1928. Archie married Nancy Neele a week later.<ref>{{cite news |date=6 November 1928 |title=Col. Christie Married |page=5 [Includes divorce details] |work=[[Gloucestershire Echo]]}}</ref> Christie retained custody of their daughter, Rosalind, and kept the Christie surname for her writing.<ref name=":17"/>{{Rp|21}}<ref>{{cite news |date=21 April 1928 |title=Mrs. Christie. Novelist Granted Decree Nisi |page=17 |work=[[The Yorkshire Post]]}}</ref> Reflecting on the period in her autobiography, Christie wrote, "So, after illness, came sorrow, despair and heartbreak. There is no need to dwell on it."<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|340}}

In 1928, Christie left England and took the [[Orient Express|(Simplon) Orient Express]] to [[Istanbul]] and then to [[Baghdad]].<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|169–70}} In Iraq, she became friends with archaeologist [[Leonard Woolley]] and his wife, who invited her to return to their dig in February 1930.<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|376–77}} On that second trip, she met archaeologist [[Max Mallowan]], 13 years her junior.<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|284}} In a 1977 interview, Mallowan recounted his first meeting with Christie, when he took her and a group of tourists on a tour of his expedition site in Iraq.<ref name="max">{{cite web |title=Interview with Max Mallowan |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/agatha_christie/12508.shtml |access-date=21 July 2017 |work=[[BBC]] |archive-date=27 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727080059/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/agatha_christie/12508.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> Christie and Mallowan married in [[Edinburgh]] in September 1930.<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|295–96}}<ref>''Marriage Certificate''. Scotland{{snd}}Statutory Register of Marriages, 685/04 0938, 11 September 1930, District of St Giles, Edinburgh.</ref> Their marriage lasted until Christie's death in 1976.<ref name="thompson">{{Citation |last=Thompson |first=Laura |title=Agatha Christie: An English Mystery |year=2008 |place=London |publisher=[[Headline Review]] |isbn=978-0-7553-1488-1}}</ref>{{Rp|413–14}} She accompanied Mallowan on his archaeological expeditions, and her travels with him contributed background to several of her novels set in the Middle East.<ref name="max"/> Other novels (such as ''[[Peril at End House]]'') were set in and around Torquay, where she was raised.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|95}} Christie drew on her experience of international train travel when writing her 1934 novel ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]''.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|201}} The [[Pera Palace Hotel]] in Istanbul, the eastern terminus of the railway, claims the book was written there and maintains Christie's room as a memorial to the author.<ref>{{cite web |date=19 September 2018 |title=World-famous Author Agatha Christie and The Mysterious Story of Her Lost 11 Days |url=https://blog.perapalace.com/en/story-of-pera/agatha-christie-and-the-story-of-her-lost-11-days/ |access-date=2 May 2020 |website=[[Pera Palace Hotel]] |language=en-US |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806092428/https://blog.perapalace.com/en/story-of-pera/agatha-christie-and-the-story-of-her-lost-11-days/ |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Refn|Other authors claim Christie wrote ''Murder on the Orient Express'' whilst at a dig at [[Arpachiyah]].<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|206}}<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|111}}|group=lower-alpha}}
[[File:Cresswell Place.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Cresswell Place, [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]]|alt=Colour photograph of the front of a three-storey house]]

Christie and Mallowan first lived in Cresswell Place in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], and later in Sheffield Terrace, [[Holland Park]], [[Kensington]]. Both properties are now marked by [[blue plaque]]s. In 1934, they bought [[Winterbrook House]] in [[Winterbrook]], a hamlet near [[Wallingford, Oxfordshire|Wallingford]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Dame Agatha Christie & Sir Max Mallowan |url=http://www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/christie.html |access-date=20 May 2020 |website=[[Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme]] |archive-date=29 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529092532/http://www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/christie.html |url-status=live}}</ref> This was their main residence for the rest of their lives and the place where Christie did much of her writing.<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|365}} This house also bears a blue plaque. Christie led a quiet life despite being known in Wallingford; from 1951 to 1976 she served as president of the local [[amateur dramatic society]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sinodunplayers.org.uk/w2011/heritage |title=Sinodun Players |website=Sinodun Players |access-date=9 February 2018 |archive-date=10 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210002936/http://www.sinodunplayers.org.uk/w2011/heritage |url-status=live}}</ref>

The couple acquired the [[Greenway Estate]] in Devon as a summer residence in 1938;<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|310}} it was given to the [[National Trust]] in 2000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Agatha's Greenway |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/greenway/features/agathas-greenway |access-date=30 April 2020 |website=[[National Trust]] |language=en |archive-date=16 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416121515/https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/greenway/features/agathas-greenway |url-status=live}}</ref> Christie frequently stayed at [[Abney Hall]], [[Cheshire]], which was owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts, and based at least two stories there: a short story, "[[The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding]]", in the story collection of the same name and the novel ''[[After the Funeral]]''.<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|126}}<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|43}} One Christie [[compendium]] notes that "Abney became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all its servants and grandeur being woven into her plots. The descriptions of the fictional Chimneys, Stonygates, and other houses in her stories are mostly Abney Hall in various forms."<ref>{{Citation |last1=Wagstaff |first1=Vanessa |title=Agatha Christie: A Reader's Companion |url=https://archive.org/details/agathachristiere00wags/page/14 |page=[https://archive.org/details/agathachristiere00wags/page/14 14] |year=2004 |publisher=[[Aurum Press]] |isbn=1-84513-015-4 |last2=Poole |first2=Stephen}}</ref>

[[File:DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE 1890-1976 Detective novelist and playwright lived here 1934-1941.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Blue plaque]] at 58 Sheffield Terrace, [[Holland Park]], London|alt=Colour photograph of a wall plaque stating Christie "lived here 1934–1941"]]
[[File:Winterbrook House-geograph-1848557-by-Bill-Nicholls.jpg|thumb|Winterbrook House, [[Winterbrook]], Oxfordshire. Her final home, Christie lived here with her husband from 1934 until her death in 1976.]]

During World War II, Christie moved to London and lived in a flat at the [[Isokon Flats|Isokon]] in [[Hampstead]], while working in the pharmacy at [[University College Hospital]] (UCH), London, where she updated her knowledge of poisons.<ref>Worsley, Lucy (2022) ''Agatha Christie'', Hodder & Stoughton</ref> Her later novel ''[[The Pale Horse]]'' was based on a suggestion from Harold Davis, the chief pharmacist at UCH. In 1977, a [[thallium poisoning]] case was solved by British medical personnel who had read Christie's book and recognised the symptoms she described.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Thallium poisoning in fact and in fiction |journal=[[The Pharmaceutical Journal]] |date=25 November 2006 |volume=277 |page=648 |url=https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/column/thallium-poisoning-in-fact-and-in-fiction-/-vexed-question-of-the-geographical-origins-of-the-meat-filled-pasty-/-how-illegal-ch/10002699.article |access-date=6 September 2019 |archive-date=6 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906164450/https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/column/thallium-poisoning-in-fact-and-in-fiction-/-vexed-question-of-the-geographical-origins-of-the-meat-filled-pasty-/-how-illegal-ch/10002699.article |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>John Emsley, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-poison-prescribed-by-agatha-christie-thanks-to-the-mystery-writer-the-deadly-properties-of-thallium-sulphate-have-become-common-knowledge-corrected-1534450.html "The poison prescribed by Agatha Christie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925153802/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-poison-prescribed-by-agatha-christie-thanks-to-the-mystery-writer-the-deadly-properties-of-thallium-sulphate-have-become-common-knowledge-corrected-1534450.html |date=25 September 2015 }}, ''[[The Independent]]'', 20 July 1992.</ref>

The British intelligence agency [[MI5]] investigated Christie after a character called Major Bletchley appeared in her 1941 thriller ''[[N or M?]]'', which was about a hunt for a pair of deadly [[fifth column]]ists in wartime England.<ref name="Richard Norton-Taylor">{{cite news |author=Richard Norton-Taylor |date=4 February 2013 |title=Agatha Christie was investigated by MI5 over Bletchley Park mystery |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/04/agatha-christie-mi5-bletchley |access-date=29 March 2013 |archive-date=23 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923050939/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/04/agatha-christie-mi5-bletchley |url-status=live}}</ref> MI5 was concerned that Christie had a spy in Britain's top-secret codebreaking centre, [[Bletchley Park]]. The agency's fears were allayed when Christie told her friend, the codebreaker [[Dilly Knox]], "I was stuck there on my way by train from Oxford to London and took revenge by giving the name to one of my least lovable characters."<ref name="Richard Norton-Taylor"/>

Christie was elected a [[fellow]] of the [[Royal Society of Literature]] in 1950.<ref name=":17"/>{{Rp|23}} In honour of her many literary works, Christie was appointed Commander of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[1956 New Year Honours]].<ref>{{cite news |date=30 December 1955 |title=Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood |page=11 |publisher=The London Gazette |issue=Supplement: 40669 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40669/supplement/11 |access-date=18 April 2020 |archive-date=30 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730132159/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40669/supplement/11 |url-status=live}}</ref> She was co-president of the [[Detection Club]] from 1958 to her death in 1976.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|93}} In 1961, she was awarded an honorary [[Doctor of Literature]] [[Honorary degree|degree]] by the [[University of Exeter]].<ref name=":17"/>{{Rp|23}} In the [[1971 New Year Honours]], she was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE),<ref>{{cite news |date=31 December 1970 |title=D.B.E. |page=7 |publisher=The London Gazette |issue=Supplement: 45262 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/45262/supplement/7 |access-date=18 April 2020 |archive-date=19 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919115510/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/45262/supplement/7 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kastan |first=David Scott |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-516921-8 |volume=1 |page=467}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Reitz |first=Caroline |title=Christie, Agatha |date=2006 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195169218.001.0001/acref-9780195169218-e-0098 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195169218.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-516921-8 |access-date=24 October 2019 |archive-date=16 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116150129/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195169218.001.0001/acref-9780195169218-e-0098 |url-status=live}}</ref> three years after her husband had been [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] for his archaeological work.<ref>{{cite news |date=31 May 1968 |title=Knights Bachelor |page=6300 |work=[[The London Gazette]] |issue=Supplement: 44600 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/44600/supplement/6300 |access-date=18 April 2020 |archive-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201043648/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/44600/supplement/6300 |url-status=live}}</ref> After her husband's knighthood, Christie could also be [[Style (manner of address)|styled]] Lady Mallowan.<ref name=":16"/>{{Rp|343}}

From 1971 to 1974, Christie's health began to fail, but she continued to write. Her last novel was ''[[Postern of Fate]]'' in 1973.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|368–72}}<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|477}} [[Textual analysis]] suggested that Christie may have begun to develop [[Alzheimer's disease]] or other [[dementia]] at about this time.<ref>{{cite news |last=Devlin |first=Kate |date=4 April 2009 |title=Agatha Christie 'had Alzheimer's disease when she wrote final novels' |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5101619/Agatha-Christie-had-Alzheimers-disease-when-she-wrote-final-novels.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408043419/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5101619/Agatha-Christie-had-Alzheimers-disease-when-she-wrote-final-novels.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 April 2009 |access-date=28 August 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=3 April 2009 |title=Study claims Agatha Christie had Alzheimer's |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/03/agatha-christie-alzheimers-research |url-status=live |access-date=28 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090801003533/http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/03/agatha-christie-alzheimers-research |archive-date=1 August 2009}}</ref>