Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Agatha Christie

Length: 1 hr and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Back in print in an all-new edition is the engaging and illuminating chronicle of the life of the "Queen of Mystery". Fans of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and readers of John Curran’s fascinating biographies Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks and Murder in the Making will be spellbound by the compelling, authoritative account of one of the world’s most influential and fascinating novelists, told in her own words and inimitable style - and here in her own voice. These audio excerpts were dictated by Agatha Christie herself.

The New York Times Book Review called Christie’s autobiography a "joyful adventure," saying, "she brings the sense of wonder... to her extraordinary career."

Please note: This is a historical recording, and the audio quality is reflective of the time in which it was recorded.

©1977 Agatha Christie Limited (P)2010 Agatha Christie Archive Trust

A Treat to hear Agatha tell her own Story

The chapters went by so quickly as I felt like I was having a cup of tea with Agatha as she talked about her writing life. I enjoyed hearing her voice and inflections. The personal insights and struggles she shares gave me a renewed respect for her work.

Original Recordings

I very much enjoyed Agatha Christie's memories and opinions in her own words. The only thing that keeps me from giving this 5 stars all around is the quality of the recordings. I realize the author died several decades ago, but with today's technology surely the recordings could be cleaned up and the extraneous noises edited out.. My only other comment is the misnomer. Agatha Christie did indeed write an autobiography which I read several years ago. I remember it being quite lengthy and covering her entire life chronologically and would love to see Audible produce it. This book is a few comments about her writing career, but enjoyable from that standpoint.

Agatha Christie is Amazing

The reason for the low rating of the overall of this title is because it is delivered in it's original form. This makes it difficult to understand. I would have given it much higher marks had I not had to struggle to understand what she was saying throughout.

Fascinating glimpse

How fascinating to hear, in the author's own voice, her thoughts and feelings. I wish the details of the audio recording listed what date(s) she made this recording & how old she was. She is old enough to have some definite clarity on some things she should & should not have done; but you also hear some tender spots that she skims over lightly to avoid opening the wound. Interesting if you're a fan. If not, you'll whine about an old lady. Save us both the nuisance.

Bad sound quality, but amazing!

This is a very old recording of Agatha Christie recounting certain aspects of her life. The sound quality is very bad, but it’s fascinating to hear her discuss her writing, her tastes, and small aspects of her life. The manuscript version was published a year after her death in 1977.

I had no idea that she considered herself a wife, first, and an author, second. She enjoyed writing and only did it because she liked it, though her books never entirely satisfied her. She mused over people’s urging her to get Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple to appear in a single story. The suggestion irritated her because she felt the two characters incongruent and incompatible.

She didn’t enjoy her work being transferred to the stage. She wrote her own play which everyone demurred on, implying it was no good. Then after some time, she decided that she should be the only one to transfer her works to plays.

Agatha Christie was spunky! It didn’t take her long to decide not to share her ideas with many people. Too often, when she shared an idea, she got a lot of negative feedback. It struck her confidence in her own judgement, and it didn’t take her long to decide that she didn’t like that. She knew what she liked. She knew what she would want to read. She would write that.

Her writing process was deeply encouraging as someone who has struggled with confidence in writing. She described the 3 to 4 weeks before beginning a book, chewing on pencils, laying on a bed to cry because you don’t have an idea — you did, but now you don’t think it’s any good. She would talk to her husband — she’s done with writing. She’s out of ideas. She’s no good as a writer. She’s written her last book. And he responded patiently, slowly — all that is rubbish. Of course she’s a good writer. Of course she has an idea. Of course it will all work out. She will certainly write another book.

This was so fun and encouraging to listen to, so inspiring! I highly recommend to anyone who would like be an author.

Better than a biography

In spite of the title given, this is NOT an autobiography of Agatha Christie. It is something more important and rare. It is the actual voice of Agatha Christie dictating notes, some of which were used to write her autobiography. The sound quality is poor because of the primitive sound equipment available at that time, and nothing can be done about that. And it jumps about because she dictated ideas and memories as they came to her. I have read the finished autobiography and enjoyed it.

I LOVED being able to hear the Queen of Golden Age Mystery Novels talk about the development of some of her best and most famous novels and stories. I remember reading in the newspapers about the discovery of these historic recordings, and a few scraps were made available. I very much wished to be able to hear them all. I am delighted to discover that Audible has made these important historic recordings available to listeners, and the price (FREE!) makes it even better.

Just my opinion.

It was very interesting but background noises
made it somewhat difficult to understand Agatha Christie.

Recording needs to be cleaned up

I think this chapter is for die hard Agatha Christie fans. There is so much clicking that the recording becomes distracting.
I only know of a few of her books, so I wasn't sure what she was talking about.
It was very interesting how she thought some of her characters were a one story and now have had many stories. There are a few very interesting parts.

Washing dishes

Very interesting as she gives a critique of many of the plays that were scripted from her books. The audio in the background sounds like someone is washing dishes, and distracts from the story.

Interesting story

And awesome to listen to Agatha Christie tell her own story is addicted! However, the recording is very hard to listen to needs to be cleaned up.