Dame agatha christie (1890-1976), the famous english 'queen of crime', creator of world-known detectives hercule poirot and miss jane marple, was born in england on 15 september 1890. agatha mary clarissa miller was the youngest of the three children. her father died when agatha was just ten years old. she received no formal education, her mother and then governesses taught her at home to read before she entered and finished school in paris in 1906. encouraged at an early age by her mother to write, agatha started writing her first stories. on 24 december 1914, she married a pilot archie christie, with whom she had a daughter, rosalind. during world war i agatha worked as a nurse. she got a great deal of knowledge about illness and poisons such as strychnine. so while she was writing her detective stories she could easily describe all the symptoms of this or that illness. her first novel "the mysterious affair at styles", where she used some of knowledge, was an immediate bestseller. in 1926, the year of the death of her mother, agatha christie created some mystery of her own, disappearing for a time; when she was found she said that she didn't remember where she had been. unfortunately, in 1928 archie divorced agatha. she then travelled to the middle east, baghdad and iraq. there she met her future husband, archaeologist sir max edgar lucien mallowan. they got married in scotland in 1930. she often accompanied him in his expeditions to the middle east. in 1974 agatha christie appeared for the last time in public for her play "murder on the orient express". when she was not travelling the world, her and max's home in england was in the town of wallingford, oxfordshire, where she died peacefully on 12 january 1976. a5. agatha's mother was against her daughter's first attempts in writing 1) true 2) false 3) not stated a6. working as a nurse helped agatha in writing her detective stories. 1) true 2) false 3) not stated a7. agatha's first detective novel was a success. 1) true 2) false 3) not stated a8. agatha had visited all european countries. 1) true 2) false 3) not stated