432 pages | HardcoverA new, fascinating account of the life of Agatha Christie from celebrated literary and cultural historian Lucy Worsley.

“Nobody in the world was more inadequate toact the heroine than I was.”

Why did Agatha Christie spend her careerpretending that she was just an ordinary housewife, when clearly shewasnt?Her life isfascinatingfor its mysteries and its passionsand, as Lucy Worsley says,”She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern.”She went surfing in Hawaii, shelovedfast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, whichhelped her through devastating mental illness.

So whydespite all the evidence to thecontrarydid Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady ofleisure?

She was born in 1890 into a world that hadits own rules about what women could and couldnt do.Lucy Worsleys biography is not just of amassively, internationally successful writer.It’s also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class andgender, became anastonishingly successful working woman.

With access to personal letters and papersthat have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsleys biography is both authoritative andentertaining andmakes us realize what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christiewastruly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.