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How Christie Wrote
Agatha Christie said she never knew where the ideas for a new novel would spring from:
“Plots come to me at such odd moments, when I am walking along the street, or examining a hat shop… suddenly a splendid idea comes into my head.”
Christie’s inspiration came from the world she knew. She drew on the military gentlemen, lords and ladies, spinsters, widows and doctors of her family’s circle of friends. A natural observer, her descriptions of village politics, local rivalries and family jealousies are often painfully accurate. Her grandson, Mathew Prichard, has described her as “a person who listened more than she talked, who saw more than she was seen.”
Historian C.V. Wedgwood wrote of Christie: “Her social settings, her characters and her dialogue are always accurately observed. There is no better all-round craftsman in the field.”
Poirot
“Why not make my detective a Belgian?...I could see him as a tidy little man, always arranging things, liking things in pairs, liking things ...
Miss Marple
“There was no unkindness in Miss Marple, she just did not trust people. Though she expected the worst, she often accepted people kindly in spite ...
Tommy
Tommy Beresford, an unimaginative but charming young man, encounters a childhood friend, Tuppence Cowley, after he is released from service in World War One. Jobless, ...
