Agatha (Miller) Christie was born in Torquay, England, in 1890. She was the youngest of three children born to an American father and a British mother. Agatha was home schooled, taught by governesses and tutors, and was able to read by age four. Agatha was a voracious reader and loved newspaper articles and all types of books. However, her parents worried that she might be developmentally challenged because of her extreme shyness and encouraged her to express herself through music.
Agatha was sent to finishing school at age 16, where she excelled at piano and singing and considered a career in music. Agatha married, and during World War I she worked as a nurse in the dispensary, which helped her gain the knowledge of poisons and chemistry that would be useful when later writing her murder mysteries.
“I, myself, was always recognized…as the ‘slow one’ in the family. It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it.
Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. I was…an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.”
—Agatha Christie
Despite being a prolific author, Agatha was a horrible speller and had such terrible handwriting, she didn’t begin to write her books until she could type. She would even dictate to a typist to transcribe her stories due to her handwriting. She had a bad memory for numbers and difficulty adding. It is believed she had dysgraphia, or difficulty with written mechanical language, such as spelling and punctuation, and characterized by poor handwriting.
Despite her learning disability, Agatha loved to learn and had many interests she indulged, including archaeology and horticulture. Her writing career spanned over 50 years and she wrote over 100 novels, short stories, and plays. Agatha has sold over two billion books worldwide. In 1971, Agatha Christie received the Order of Dame Commander by the British Empire. She died in 1976.
EPS began as the leading publisher of materials for students with dyslexia. Over the past 50 years, we’ve developed programs that support students with a wide variety of learning disabilities. Choose a subject from the left to learn more about these resources.
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