Top writer now 80

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32406, 19 September 1970, Page 7

Top writer now 80

(N Z P A Reuter—Copy right) LONDON, Sept. 17.

Agatha Christie, a great-grandmother who jhas spent a lifetime devising methods of murder, marked her eightieth birthday this week by publishing her eightieth book.

i Mrs Christie (in private life 'Lady Mallowan) is probably 'the most famous thriller i writer alive and her latest 'novel shows no signs of 'diminishing powers. i Called “Passenger ; to

Frankfurt” it is a sharp departure from the countryhouse setting of many of her novels into a world of international anarchy of the 19705, complete with “Youth Power” and neo-Nazis. Mrs Christie calls ’it a fantasy in her introduction to the book, adding, “but most of the things that happen in it are happening, or giving promise of happening, in the world of today." One critic found the book “a very adroit exposition of the underground causes for the increasing outbreaks of violence everywhere.” BIG PROFITS For Agatha Christie, crime has paid more than handsomely since her first novel was published 50 years ago.

Her books, translated into 103 languages, are believed

to have sold more than 350 million copies.

Her income from novels, plays and film rights has been estimated around $214,000 a year. But she is remarkably modest. “I regard my works as of no importance,” she says. “I’ve simply set out to entertain.”

Her most spectacular success has been her play, “The Mousetrap.” which has been running in the West End of London since November, 1952. ARCHAEOLOGY

Her first marriage was dissolved after 14 years in 1928, and two years later, she married her present husband, Sir Max Mallowan, professor of Western Asiatic archaeology at the University of London. '