CHAPTER 6: Remembering...... Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." - Agatha Christie

It has been what.....30 years now since the demise of one of the world's greatest authors in crime and detective stories; Agatha Christie. When I began borrowing and reading books, and reading them for the purpose of improving English and also 'starting' to instill the mood for reading, Agatha Christie's books were among the first that I took up. Since she primarily wrote on crime fiction, it interested me. She's like the female Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, although her works was believed to have been more and sold more than Doyle's works. Can't remember really what was the first book that I read from her........I think it was Murder on the Orient Express, can't really remember. And if Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, ... then Christie created Hercule Poirot.

Poirot, the Belgian detective, is one of my favourite fictional characters. He's got an egg shaped head and always dresses properly, in a true gentleman conduct. It's his manner of thinking and solving the crime in Christie's stories that made me attracted to this guy (as well as his attitude in his work and life), and he has given me a long lasting impression since I was young and up to now. Usually in the stories, Poirot would go on saying that you need to "work" and "exercise" your little grey cells when trying to solve crime. Anyway, when first came across him, I tought that his name was pronounce as how you would spelled it. Turns out his name is pronounced in the french way, Hercule being pronounced 'ercule' (H doesn't sound) and the poirot pronounced as 'phua'
(as in pronouncing Phua Chu Kang) and 'row' (the r has like 'ggrrr'
sound - damn, I'm bad in phonetics). Apart from the books, there have been some tv miniseries adaptations of Poirot's exploits. The last I've seen of 'em was like several years ago, Astro's Starworld showed them (if I'm not mistaken).

Anyway, coming back to the point (like how Santhosh would say it), I really enjoyed reading some of Agatha Christie's books. So, this is some sort of tribute to one of the greatest writers the world has known.......Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie.

September 15, 1980 - January 12, 1976