Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Whimsey ( the respective creations of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers ) have retained Holmes' egotism but not his zest for life and eccentric habits.

His reading ranged from Agatha Christie to The Book Of Job and he had an insatiable interest in his fellow-creatures, while his letters were full of gossip about new politicians and old men of letters with whom he had been intimately thrown six decades before.

The world's best-selling mystery writer, and often referred to as the “ Queen of Crime ”, Agatha Christie is considered a master of suspense, plotting, and characterisation.

Many of the settings for Agatha Christie ’ s books were directly inspired by the many archaeological field seasons spent in the Middle East on the sites managed by her second husband Max Mallowan.

From 8 November 2001-24 March 2002, The British Museum had an exhibit named “ Agatha Christie and Archaeology: Mystery in Mesopotamia ”, which presented a fascinating look at the secret life of Agatha Christie and the influences of archaeology in her life and works.

In 1971 Agatha Christie was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Several biographical programs have been made, such as the 2004 BBC television programme entitled Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures, in which she is portrayed by Olivia Williams, Anna Massey, and Bonnie Wright.

Christie features as a character in Gaylord Larsen's Dorothy and Agatha and The London Blitz Murders ' by Max Allan Collins.

Christie has also been parodied on screen, such as in the film Murder by Indecision, which featured the character " Agatha Crispy ".

Hercule Poirot (; ) is a fictional Belgian detective, created by Agatha Christie.

By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot " insufferable ", and by 1960 she felt that he was a " detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep ".

This is how Agatha Christie describes Poirot in The Murder on the Orient Express in the initial pages:

Like Agatha Christie, she isn't overly fond of the detective she is most famous for creating – in Ariadne's case the Finnish sleuth Sven Hjerson.

In The Agatha Christie Hour, she was portrayed by British actress Angela Easterling, while in Agatha Christie's Poirot, she was portrayed by Pauline Moran.

On 22 February 1945, " speaking from London, Agatha Christie introduced the initial broadcast of the Poirot series via shortwave.

Agatha Christie attributed the inspiration for the character of Miss Marple to a number of sources: Miss Marple was " the sort of old lady who would have been rather like some of my grandmother's Ealing cronies – old ladies whom I have met in so many villages where I have gone to stay as a girl ".

When she made it, the results, starring Margaret Rutherford, were popular and successful light comedies, but were disappointing to Christie herself ; nevertheless, Agatha Christie dedicated the novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side to Rutherford.

In the 1940s, Joan appeared on-stage in an Agatha Christie play, Appointment with Death, which was seen by Christie who wrote in a note to her, " I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple ".

The character of Jessica Fletcher is thought to be based on a combination of Miss Marple, Agatha Christie herself, and another Christie character, Ariadne Oliver, who often appears in the Hercule Poirot mysteries.

The detective novelist Ariadne Oliver is Agatha Christie's humorous self-caricature.

In Agatha Christie's Poirot, George is played by actor David Yelland.

Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories.

In Christian iconography, some works of art depict women with their breasts in their hands or on a platter, signifying that they died as a martyr by having their breasts severed ; one example of this is Saint Agatha of Sicily.

* Dartmoor Prison is mentioned in The Thirteen Problems, a short story collection written by Agatha Christie, and first published in 1932.

The same joke-translation is mentioned in Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun by Patrick Redfern to Hercule Poirot – a prank which inadvertently gives Poirot the answer to the murder.

Likewise, most Agatha Christie books ( Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None being the exceptions ) cause Cardassians great difficulty, as, whilst the idea that a high-ranking person is killed in mysterious circumstances appeals, they cannot understand why only one person is guilty.

* December 3 – Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey ; on December 14 she is found at the Harrogate Hotel.

* November 6 – Agatha Christie's mystery novel And Then There Were None is published in book form in the United States.

* May 15 – The Cathedral of Saint Agatha in Catania is consecrated by the Breton Abbot Ansger of Saint Euphemia.

In Agatha Christie's, " Appointment with Death " ( 1938 ), the mysterious and enigmatic Petra is the setting for a murder mystery featuring Hercule Poirot.

His mother was Agatha, who was described as a relative of the German Emperor, but whose exact identity is unknown.

She is probably best known for her 1960s performances as Miss Marple in several films based loosely on Agatha Christie's novels.

Christianity plays an important role in Bakweri regions, where music played over the radio is as likely to be the latest from Nigerian gospel singer Agatha Moses as it is the latest hit by an American hip hop star.

It was fate, however, that the treasure of the basilica still pass from hand to hand as a pledge as security for loans received: in 1273 is held at the Humble of St. Agatha ( the present church Carrobiolo ) in Monza in 1311 and is engaged in some bankers that safety will transfer to Avignon.

Burgh Island is closely linked to Agatha Christie, as it served as the inspirational setting for both And Then There Were None as well as the Hercule Poirot mystery Evil Under the Sun. The hotel and its eloquent Art Deco styling was also a bolt hole in the 1930s for the likes of London's rich and famous, including Noël Coward.

* 1952 – Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London later becoming the longest continuously-running play in history.

He turned his family mansion in Rome into a monastery, St. Agatha in Suburra, endowing it with expensive and precious vessels for use at the altar, and also established a new church, dedicated to Sant ' Eustachio.

* Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles ( 1920 ) introduces Hercule Poirot.

Whilst working at the Institute, Childe took up residence at Lawn Road Flats near to Hampstead, an apartment block perhaps recommended to him by the popular crime fiction author Agatha Christie ( the wife of his colleague Max Mallowan ), who had lived there during the Second World War.

* Cynthia Murdoch, character in Agatha Christie's 1916 mystery novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Agatha had at first been affianced to Percy Craye, though upon reading in the papers of his behavior at a Covent Garden ball, she had ended the engagement.

* " My Aunt Agatha who eats broken bottles and is strongly suspected of turning into a werewolf at the time of the full moon.

* In Agatha Christie ( writing as Mary Westmacott )' s Absent in the Spring, Joan Scudamore is stranded at a Rest House in Tell Abu Hamid for days and wishes for a game of Halma to pass the time.

The attack, which initially had the approval of the Haganah ( the principal Jewish paramilitary group in Palestine ) and was conceived of as a response to Operation Agatha ( in which widespread raids, including one on the Jewish Agency, had been carried out ), was the deadliest directed at the British during the Mandate era ( 1920 – 1948 ).

The town formed at the Saint Agatha Church which was a pilgrimage location in the Middle Ages.

" In its 1957 season, he appeared as Mr. Mayher in Agatha Christie's Witness For The Prosecution ( July 1957 ), as Hector in Jane Anouilh's Thieves Carnival ( July 1957 ), and the role which he once described as the " catalyst of his career "-as Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge ( from July 30 to August 3, 1957 and directed by Ulu Grosbard who was by then a regular director at the Gateway Theatre ).

Agatha Christie's room at the Hotel Pera Palas in Istanbul, where she wrote Murder on the Orient Express

Some were more unorthodox, such as a year's supply of beer, while the same short breaks away – an Agatha Christie Murder Weekend, a stay at a health spa or a canal holiday – were won on the show for many years.

* Agatha Christie publishes her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing the long-running character detective, Hercule Poirot.

* Agatha Christie — The Mysterious Affair at Styles ( first Hercule Poirot mystery )

After hearing the news of her son's engagement, Agatha, with her butler's help, gets Finley drunk and tricks him not only into revealing that he bribed Petree, and that he has him safely hidden away at his isolated lodge.

* Agatha Christie – Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories

* Agatha Christie-Peril at End House

After Harold's defeat at the battle of Hastings later that year, Edgar was proclaimed King of England, but when the Normans advanced on London, the Witenagemot presented Edgar to William the Conqueror who took him to Normandy before returning him to England in 1068, when Edgar, Margaret, Cristina and their mother Agatha fled north to Northumbria.