Artists Who Inspire Me: Agatha Christie

Welcome to my series on Artists Who Inspire Me. Each post will address a different artist, from any field, who has had a major impact on my life and/or my work. Some will be artists whose work I enjoy, others will be artists whose work I respect. All of them, however, will have had some type of major impact upon me, and I will explain why and how, here. Hopefully I can introduce you to some great artistic work, while simultaneously offering some insight into my personal growth as an artist and as a person.

She is the best-selling fiction writer of all-time. She is synonymous with the mystery genre. Agatha Christie may not have been the most artistic, complex, or demanding writer, but she knew exactly how to capture the average reader brilliantly, consistently, and, most importantly, entertainingly.

Agatha Christie. From her first published novel in 1921 (The Mysterious Affair at Styles) to her last in the year of her death, 1976 (Sleeping Murder) Christie was a staple of the popular literary community. Sixty-six detective novels, fourteen short story books, six romances/tragedies under her pseudonym, Mary Westmacott, and a smattering of other works, including poetry and plays. Maybe not the most prolific writer ever, but certainly a dedicated one. Her quality never faded.

No, not all of her books were five-star affairs. The likes of Passenger to Frankfurt (1970) and Endless Night might not stand up to the classics, like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), or And Then There Were None (1939), but the misses are scattered (and rarely) across a long and successful career, and even the lesser novels have value.

But why is Agatha Christie—whose two-billion plus books sold evidence her importance to many—so important to me?

Because I never would have become the reader I am, and therefore the writer I am, without her.

I've mentioned it many times before that I hated reading for a long time, all the way into the tenth grade.

And then I found The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (or, more accurately, I was forced to read it). I loved it, and it inspired me to keep reading, but as I'm sure we've all encountered before: one positive experience inspires us to try more, but without another, we eventually stop.

That's where Agatha Christie comes in. She was next. I'd heard her name thrown around for years due to my parents' enjoyment of her works. And, of course, her general fame made her a relatively common reference within the literary society, in general. But when I first gave in (as I would have considered it back then) and read And Then There Were None, I was hooked.

Over the course of the next couple of years, the young person who had previously avoided reading wherever he could, read around twenty Agatha Christie novels, and enjoyed most of them.

I tried to create my own interesting detective and didn't get past chapter one.

But the influence has, nonetheless, persisted.

In the twelfth grade, when asked, for an assignment, to write in the style of our favourite author, I chose Agatha Christie, and studied the way she wrote. In so many ways, it's simple. Simple (subject-predicate-object) sentences, short sentences, uncomplex language. And of course, this is what allowed her to become a popular writer. The average reader wants accessibility. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just a fact.

But as a writer, as someone who's trying to make a mark on the world, it can be hard to let yourself write like that. There's this (highly arrogant and pretentious) temptation to try to write something artistic, something that transcends the literary world (as though that can still be done after thousands of years of literature, after hundreds of years of the novel).

But I think we can all take a page out of Agatha Christie's book: if we want to entertain, if we want to connect with our readers, if we want to be read widely: take a step back. Respect the average reader. Remain accessible. It's still possible to write high quality books without creating an "artistic masterpiece".

But that's not the end of Agatha Christie's influence. Realistically, I was always a fan of genre fiction (at least, on television). But seeing mystery novels that have incredible societal influence did well to remind me that not everything has to be literary fiction (something that's easy to forget when all you're allowed to read in school is Margaret Atwood, Rohinton Mistry, Robertson Davies, etc.). Not to take anything away from those authors, but when I'm looking to relax and just have fun with my reading, they're not the ones I'm looking to first.

Balance is important. I'd like to do a little of both: entertain, and write something great. But in order to do both (or either, for that matter), it's important to have experience with all types of writing. And Agatha Christie gave me everything I needed to see from an entertainment perspective.

She will always be one of my favourite authors, and to this day, I will still call her my #1.

To conclude, I'd like to offer a list of my 5 favourite Agatha Christie novels:

1. Peril at End House (1932)

2. And Then There Were None (1939)

3. Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

4. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

5. The Pale Horse (1961)

The most difficult part of making this list was that so many of the books are similar. Although they are all distinguishable from each other and, therefore, worth reading, the basic beats are the same, the general style is consistent. So how do I pick? Peril at End House had, for me, one of the best endings. And Then There Were None was one of the most original. Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd were two of the most memorable. And The Pale Horse is the only one I ever correctly guessed the ending of (which is kind of a cheat, and maybe it's not the fifth best Agatha Christie novel, but I will always remember it, as a result).

I'd also like to take a moment to show some respect for Absent in the Spring (1944), one of her tragedies, written under the nom-de-plume Mary Westmacott. If mystery isn't for you, definitely give that one a perusal. From a psychological/emotional perspective, I believe it makes some powerful points.

If you have some favourite Agatha Christie novels, leave a comment below!