Towards zero
She began in April 1950 on Egyptian archaeological site, ended 15 years later, at the age of 75 because "that is all there is to say". Appointed Dame Agatha, as well as Lady, "not rigidly circumscribed by strict chronology", she remembers only "what I wanted to remember", not her adult disappearance. Starting with "a very happy childhood", embellished by 25 black and white photographs of family, friends and world travels, indexed, she does "plunge my hand into a lucky dip" and revive her "absorbing and usually enjoyable present, which rushes on from minute to minute with fatal speed". In some 200 works translated in over 100 languages, best-sellers created inquisitive old maid Jane Marple, large-mustached Hercule Poirot with "little grey cells", and a cast of sleuths, villains, and eccentrics.