Stephen King (300m) and Dan Brown (200m) are also small fry compared to the extraordinary career of Agatha Christie, whose novels, featuring characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, are estimated to have sold up to 4bn copies. Neither is it the late Barbara Cartland, the prolific writer of romantic fiction who is estimated to have sold between 500m and 1bn copies. Perhaps, Agatha Christie just needed some time out of the public eye, away from the identity of the world’s greatest mystery writer… but perhaps we’ll never know.ĭeep dives below, if you’re into that sort of thing.Who do you think is the bestselling novelist of all time? It's not JK Rowling, whose sales are thought to be at the 450-500m mark. I left home that night in a state of high nervous strain with the intention of doing something desperate…” (GASP) Did Christie ever mention this period of time ever again? Yes actually- ONE time only. Did the media blame Colonel Christie whatsoever? Nope. Christie’s disappearance as a simple case of amnesia when in fact she was going through intense trauma. Or maybe it could be that the 1920s was an even more difficult time to be a woman and, therefore, the world wrote off Mrs. It can’t be that simple, right?Ī publicity stunt? A scorned wife? Is that all? Two doctors diagnosed her as suffering from “an unquestionable genuine loss of memory.” And her husband informed reporters, saying, “She does not know who she is… she has suffered from the most complete loss of memory.” Public reaction was largely negative at the time, assuming a possible publicity stunt or an attempt to embarrass or frame her husband due to his leaving her. Christie’s autobiography makes no reference to the disappearance. Upon her discovery, she left for her sister’s residence where she was sequestered “in a guarded hall, gates locked, telephone cut off, and callers turned away.”Īlmost 100 years later, biographers and historians are still debating over what happened during that two week period.
And on December 3rd, the Colonel & Agatha had argued after he announced his plan to spend the weekend with friends, unaccompanied by his wife.Įleven days after disappearing, Christie was discovered at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel, registered as a Mrs. He had apparently fallen in love with another woman, a Ms. It’s August, 1926, and Colonel Christie had asked Agatha for a divorce. The final pieces of this mystery come together like the flashback scene of every mystery film…
Publicity stunt or amnesia? Or something more?
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