Agatha Christie: A very Elusive Woman 4 (Pages 72 - 124)

 During the war Archie's commander was Hugh Trenchard. Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British military officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. With the outbreak of First World War, Trenchard was appointed Officer Commanding the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps.

During leave, Archie was determined to marry Agatha and they did in Bristol. Agatha Christie married Captain Archibald "Archie" Christie on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, at Emmanuel Church in Clifton, Bristol. The wedding was a hasty, last-minute affair arranged while Archie was on leave from fighting in France during World War I. 

The first book that Agatha Christie wrote was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and Poirot makes her first appearance. The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the first mystery novel by British writer Agatha Christie, introducing her fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was written in the middle of the First World War, in 1916. 

Christie based Poirot on the dozens of Belgian refugees fleeing to England. Over 1.5 million Belgian civilians fled the 1914 German invasion, creating a massive humanitarian crisis. Most sought refuge in the Netherlands (approx. 1 million), France (250,000+), and Britain (250,000+). Belgians were largely welcomed as "gallant allies", with many returning home after the 1918 armistice.

Agatha went to stay at the Moorland Hotel in Dartmoor for two weeks in 1916 to finish "The Mystery Affair At Styles". The hotel continues to operate and is a popular location for tourists wanting to visit the nearby Haytor Rocks, a large granite outcrop, or to take walking tours of Dartmoor.

In 1918 Archie returned and was posted back to London. He and Agatha had their first home at 5, Norwich Terrace in John's Wood. 

In 1918 women were allowed to vote, but it was not Agatha's case. For a woman to vote she had to be over 30, a householder or a university graduate. 

Agatha got pregnant and she had her daughter, Rosalind, on August 5, 1919. 

Then they moved to a new home in Addison Mansions. 

Agatha Christie got her first book published with the publisher John Lane, whose publishing business was the Bodley Head. Actutally, her first six  books were all published by John Lane, The Bodley Head Limited between 1920 an 1925.

Archie was invited to go on a tour around the world to promote the world exhibition that would take place in London, and Agatha went with him. They left Rosalind with Agatha's sister, and they stayed away for nine months. In 1922, Agatha and Archibald Christie undertook a 10-month "Grand Tour" around the British Empire, accompanying a trade mission for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. Traveling to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Canada, the trip inspired her writing and is documented in her letters in The Grand Tour.

Agatha got her second book published. The title was "The Secret Adversary". The Secret Adversary is the second published mystery novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in January 1922 in the United Kingdom.

In 1922 there were already plans for the serilisation of her third book "The Murder on the Links". The Murder on the Links is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in May of the same year. It is the second novel featuring Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings.

At the time there was what is called the battle of the Brows in which certain writers looked down on other writers who they considered lesser in quality. "The Battle of the Brows" refers to a 1920s-1930s British cultural debate over highbrow versus middlebrow and lowbrow tastes. The dispute explored anxieties about class, commercialism, and mass culture, featuring strong pushback against intellectual elites by proponents of more popular "middlebrow" literary culture.

Edmund Cork became Agatha's agent. Edmund Cork was Agatha Christie’s trusted U.K. literary agent and personal friend from 1923 until her death in 1976, managing her career. He got a new contract with a different publisher, William Collins, Sons. William Collins, Sons & Co., often referred to as Collins, was a Scottish printing and publishing company founded by a Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819.

Her next book was The Man In the Brown Suit. The Man in the Brown Suit is a mystery novel first published in the UK  on 22 August 1924. The character Colonel Race is introduced in this novel.

With the money she was making Agatha Christie bought herself a little Morrris Cowley car. 

Her next book was "The Secret of Chimneys". The Secret of Chimneys is a mystery novel first published in the UK  in June 1925. It introduces the characters of Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent. 

The next book in 1926 was The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a mystery novel, Agatha Christies' third to feature Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. The novel was published in the UK in June 1926 by William Collins, Sons, having previously been serialised as Who Killed Ackroyd? between July and September 1925 in the London Evening News. 

The Christies then moved to Sunningdale in Berkshire. Sunningdale is a large village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead at the extreme south-east corner of Berkshire. Located some 23 miles from London and on the main line between Reading and London Victoria, this makes Sunningdale a convenient commuter town for London while at the same time being rural enough for the residents to enjoy the environment. It was probably for this reason that Archie Christie and Agatha lived here in the 1920s, at the time when Archie had a job in the City of London.

Archie enjoyed golf, and one of his favourite spots was Sunningdale golf course.