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Welcome to Celebrate Creativity - Episode 448 - Queen of Crime

We have talked in this podcast about such great writers as Dostoyevsky and Flaubert, but so far I've left out the most popular writer of them all and that is Agatha Christie.

Only the Bible and Shakespeare have sold more copies that Agatha Christie - she is often mentioned alongside great writers who have had epileptic seizures, but her case is a bit more ambiguous than Dostoevsky or Flaubert.  In this episode, I'd like to lay out what scholars and biographers have pieced together about her health, and how possible seizures might have shaped her writing and life.

Now I know that some of you younger listeners might know mysteries or even Knives Out, but not realize how much all of that traces back to Agatha Christie. Let me give you a short - very short - introduction to Agatha Christie as a writer. 

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer — and she’s often called the “Queen of Crime.” Over the course of her life she wrote 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections, and the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap.

Her works introduced some of the most famous detectives in literature, like Hercule Poirot — the meticulous Belgian sleuth with the “little grey cells” — and Miss Marple, the seemingly gentle village spinster who sees into the darkest corners of human nature.

Christie’s stories have sold over two billion - yes that's billion with a B - copies worldwide — more than any other author except Shakespeare and the Bible. Her works have been translated into over 100 languages, making her one of the most widely read writers in history.

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