Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign countries. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.
‘As a teacher using the Amazing People ELT Readers in an Extensive
Reading Project, I’m as happy as my students are: motivating
topics/real people, interesting facts and a great alternative to
Graded Reader fiction. Having said that, the same class is also
reading books from the Agatha Christie series, and enjoying them
very much. Their Reading Diaries are full of questions, speculation
about who-dunnit and comments about “unputdownability”. The buzz in
the classroom when we’re swopping books is tangible.’
Hania Bociek, Zürich, Switzerland
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