Review: Agatha Christie: An English Mystery by LauraThompson

TP, $24.95, 0755315340

The front cover of this book proclaims it was "Written with unique access to her diaries, letters, and family." Unfortunately, this seeming advantage has not proved very useful, chiefly because the subject was so private and so elusive, although Dame Agatha's inability to date any of her manuscripts did not help very much. The author has corrected a number of details, none of which seem to me to change the overall picture very much. On the disappear-ance, the divorce, the remarriage, and other major turning points in AC's life Thompson is reduced to employing Mary Westmacott's novels as if they were autobiographical, which may or may not be the case. As might be expected from an author with private access to evidence held by the family, Thompson is a Christie fan and does not deconstruct her life and work very much. This is nevertheless the best biography presently available, although as a critical study of the work it leaves much to be desired. It certainly does not really explain Christie's enduring popularity.