About this item
A new, fascinating account of the life of Agatha Christie from celebrated literary and cultural historian Lucy Worsley."Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was." Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was "just" an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? Her life is fascinating for its mysteries and its passions and, as Lucy Worsley says, "She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern." She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why - despite all the evidence to the contrary - did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? She was born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn't do.
About the Author
I was born in Reading (not great, but it could have been Slough) , studied Ancient and Modern History at New College, Oxford, and I've got a PhD in art history from the University of Sussex. My first job after leaving college was at a crazy but wonderful historic house called Milton Manor in Oxfordshire. Here I would give guided tours, occasionally feed the llamas, and look for important pieces of paper that my boss Anthony had lost. Soon after that I moved to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, in the lovely job for administrator of the Wind and Watermills Section. Here I helped to organise that celebrated media extravaganza, National Mills Day. I departed for English Heritage in 1997, first as an Assistant Inspector and then as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings; Bolsover Castle, Hardwick Old Hall, and Kirby Hall were my favourite properties there. In 2002 I made a brief excursion to Glasgow Museums before coming down to London as Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces in 2003. Yes, this is a brilliant job, but no, you can't have it. (Bribes have been offered, and refused. ) You might also catch me presenting history films on the old goggle box, giving the talks on the cruise ship Queen Mary 2, or slurping cocktails. Lucy Worsley, OBE (born 18 December 1973) is an English historian, author, curator, and television presenter. Worsley is Joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces but is best known as a presenter of BBC Television series on historical topics, including Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (2011) , Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A 17th Century History for Girls (2012) , The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain (2014) , A Very British Romance (2015) , Lucy Worsley: Mozart's London Odyssey (2016) , and Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (2016) . -From Wikipedia
