Christie, Agatha: - Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie began writing mysteries during the World War I and wrote over one hundred novels, plays, and short story collections. She was still writing to great acclaim until her death in 1976, and her books have now sold over one billion copies in English and another billion in over one hundred foreign languages. Yet Agatha Christie was always a very private person, and while Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple became household names, the Queen of Crime was a complete enigma to all but her closest friends.