Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie by Bookanista

“ My characters do what I ask them to…”

The Authors

Novelist. Wife. Nurse. Tourist. Mother. Archaeologist. Playwright. Dame. Discover the real life of Agatha Christie, a thoroughly modern woman.

A. Martinetti G. Lebeau - A. Franc

A specialist in crime fiction, especially that from Scandinavia, Guillaume Lebeau is the author of more than fifteen books, novels and graphic novels, among them a biography of Stieg Larsson and a critical encyclopedia of French crime author Fred Vargas, as well as several documentaries on the worlds of crime fiction and cinema. He has won several prizes, and his books have been translated in over a dozen countries. Together, Martinetti and Lebeau have also written a cookbook drawing on Scandinavian crime fiction, Crimes on Ice, published by Éditions Marabout, and the encyclopedia Agatha Christie from A to Z.

The real life of Agatha Christie

Editor at French crime publisher Éditions du Masque for more than ten years, Anne Martinetti is a specialist in the worlds of Anglophone cinema and literature. A contributor to the definitive edition of Agatha Christie’s works, she also penned a worldwide bestselling cookbook based on the novels of the Queen of Crime, entitled Creams and Punishments. She is also the author of a literary guide to London and more than a dozen other works – novels, cookbooks and essays.

Born in 1973, Alexandre Franc grew up in Lyon. Since 2007, he has published over a dozen graphic novels, sometimes as a solo creator (Victor et l’Ourours from Actes Sud – l’An 2), sometimes as an artist (Mai 68. Histoire d’un Printemps, with Arnaud Bureau, Berg International), sometimes as a writer (Les Satellites, with Claire de Gastold, Gallimard) and sometimes in collaboration with a writer (Cher Régis Debray, Futuropolis). He is also an illustrator for youth periodicals, educational books and the communications industry. He lives in Paris with his wife and their two children.

Anne Martinetti - Guillaume Lebeau - Alexandre Franc

THE REAL LIFE OF AGATHA CHRISTIE

In December 1926, renowned crime novelist Agatha Christie vanished, sending shockwaves through British society. As the authorities scoured the country for her, theories and suspicions abounded: it was murder, a hoax, suicide, a publicity stunt, revenge. When she was finally located – ten days later, living under an assumed name in a hotel in Harrogate – she returned to normal life, refusing to explain what had happened. Despite Christie’s reputation for final act revelations, this episode of her life would be forever shrouded in mystery. In their intriguing graphic novel Agatha, Anne Martinetti, Guillaume Lebeau and Alexandre Franc use Christie’s enigmatic disappearance as a gateway to explore the life and character of the Queen of the Whodunit. Taking in her childhood in Torquay and her early attempts at writing, the authors chart Christie’s development into a free-spirited and thoroughly modern woman who, among other things, enjoyed flying, travel and surfing. As her memorable characters take on case after case, we come to understand the events that inspired their adventures and made Christie the person she became. While her hugely successful career will be well known to many readers, this landmark graphic biography also delves into the detail of Christie’s disappointments and personal difficulties in a way that paints the writer as a real person – funny, fallible and full of life. Spanning marriages and wars by way of archaeology and infidelities, Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie is an entertaining and dramatic portrait of the 20th century’s best-loved crime writer, showing her triumphs, her failures and her increasingly fractious relationship with the one man she could never get the better of – her most famous creation, the fastidious Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.

“ You alone do as you wish.”

US $19.95 / CAN $23.95 / UK £12.99

www.selfmadehero.com

Ashfield, Winter 1926 Well, it’s… I haven’t got any tickets for Alassio. I don’t feel like going.

What’s the matter, Archie? Nothing.

That’s fine. You’d rather stay with Rosalind.

But there must be something.

You don’t understand!

Forgive me. You’ve just lost your mother, and I don’t… What are you talking about?

Oh, you still don’t understand! I’ve fallen in love with her, and I’d like you to give me a divorce as soon as it can be arranged.

I’ve been seeing someone, Agatha. A young woman you’ve met before. Her name’s Nancy Neele, and we’ve been out together a good deal. Well, why shouldn’t you?

You seem immensely unhappy.

But… you’re not real!

You’re just a character like any other — nothing more.

You gave me life. Thus I am real.

You don’t like me, is that it?

Why are you pestering me?

I don’t find you very nice.

I could tell you felt lonely. What are we fictional characters for if not to ease readers’ loneliness?

Though my last mystery, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, brought you five thousand pounds.

My characters do what I ask them to. You alone do as you wish.

it was my mystery, not yours. I did the investigating.

So your husband’s left you?

I’d like to propose a plan.

I don’t want to talk about it. I can help you. How?

Berkshire Police Station it would be perfectly inaccurate to suggest that Agatha and I had an argument on Friday night.

But your wife knew you were seeing Miss Neele?

Have you read The Murder on the Links?

Of course! I’ve always encouraged her writing.

That’s none of your business.

We’ve dragged the lake, beaten the fields and put out a call to informants with a reward.

in this novel, which I’ve read three times (it’s my favourite), Hercule Poirot, a very unpleasant man all things considered, reads a letter signed by a certain Bella, addressed to the man she loves. She warns him that if he stops loving her, she might kill herself.

And…? Nothing.

Pure fiction! Why don’t you put more energy into looking for her?

Agatha told her sister one day that she was entirely capable of disappearing if she so wished.

if that’s the case, given your wife’s ingenuity at spinning a plot, it’ll be extremely hard for us to find her…

What did you see, Horace? This disappearance seems to be a typical case of mental retaliation against someone who’s harmed her. To put it bluntly, her primary intention seems to have been to hurt someone who would be affected by her disappearance.

Much pain, incomprehension, loneliness… Nothing else?

Edgar Wallace

She’s alive! The police will hear from her next Wednesday. Heaven be praised! Your talents as a psychic bloodhound need no further proving from now on.

You’ve gone pale, Horace. Do you feel all right? Past and present are nothing beside the future awaiting that woman…

London, Autumn 1928 I confess I haven’t read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but my wife took me to see the theatrical adaptation at the Prince of Wales!

I find that romance between Poirot and Caroline Sheppard utterly silly!

I just managed to convince the producer, Mr du Maurier, to sharpen Poirot’s character and make him more like the man in the book.

That Belgian detective is so seductive!

The actor, Charles Laughton, is. But not my Poirot, on paper.

You didn’t like Alibi?

We’ve just come back from the Persian Gulf. Do you know Baghdad?

You get there by boat, I presume?

I’ve travelled widely, but not yet in that part of the world.

Or by train — the Orient Express.

We were enchanted!

The Orient Express! I’ve always dreamed of taking it, but till now I’ve only admired it from the platform.

Why, I just read a long article in The illustrated London News devoted to Leonard Wooley’s marvellous finds at Ur!

You must go to Mosul and Basra. And don’t by any means miss the ancient city of Ur!

I’ll be going alone.

You’ve convinced me. Tomorrow I’ll cancel the trip to the West Indies I’ve been planning…

All by yourself to the Middle East?

it’s an ideal voyage for a couple.

I said “Alone”!

Miss Marple is a caustic old maid, and indiscreet, her nose in everything, eavesdropping on everyone — more a concierge than a true detective!

Hah! Are you jealous? I imagine she was inspired by Dr Sheppard’s sister in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd?

Jealous? Me? Come now, she can’t hold a candle to me… yet the readers of The Royal Magazine in which “The Tuesday Night Club” was published seem to appreciate her greatly.

Yes, my favourite character!

I didn’t think a single one of your characters found favour with you. I like some of them, just as I hate others.

A woman alone on a train… the perfect victim for my next mystery?

Enraptured, I breathe in that sulfurous odour, so different from the light, distant, somewhat oily smell of a ship that presages seasickness. A train presses on, roaring — a train is a friend!

Why not? I like trains.

Trains are relentless!

it’s true. Kill someone on a train, and it keeps going as if nothing happened… for life itself goes on, and trains must always reach their destinations. Trains are vehicles for stories.

imagine: a British schoolgirl vanishes shortly after Amiens on the Calais-Paris train… a disappearance that could be linked to the theft of a painting… and a Belgian soap merchant…

That gives me an idea!

I’m the writer here, Poirot!

Dig site for the City of Ur, iraq, 1930 Why come back here?

I don’t know what I’m looking for. But what better place to find it than the desert?

Monty’s life was something of a disaster. He owed everyone money. He even ran ivory in Africa… Alas, I don’t think I ever knew him enough to have what you might call family affection.

Do you fear death, Poirot?

I’m sorry about your brother. A cerebral hemorrhage, at such a young age… He wasn’t even fifty.

I’m immortal. Watch out for the mirage, Poirot!

My shoes…

Agatha! Max…

Despite the heat, one could not help but be amazed. The Necropolis of Nejef, the mosque at Kerbala and its dome…

iraq is the cradle of modern civilisation. Too many people forget that.

And the desert! A dream of sand!

You admire T.E. Lawrence?

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

I keep Seven Pillars of Wisdom on my nightstand. How delightful!

This is paradise! Might I venture a question?

Of course! What do you dream of?

I dream of being free… 65