Agatha Christie: A very Elusive Woman 6 (Pages 242 - 260)

 

When the Second World War broke up, Agatha returned to a wartime hospital pharmacy. This time it was the Univeristy College Hospital. During World War II, University College Hospital (UCH) in London served as a critical medical facility in the heart of the Blitz, treating hundreds of casualties, including over 200 from a single rocket attack on Tottenham Court Road. Despite severe damage risks—including a 2,500-pound bomb removed from nearby in 1941—it continued operating under intense conditions.

Agatha wrote N or M. N or M? was first published in the UK in November 1941. The title is taken from a catechism in the Book of Common Prayer which asks, "What is your Christian name? Answer N. or M." The "N. or M." here stands for the Latin, "nomen vel nomina", meaning "name or names".

Her novel "Dumb Witness" was starred by a dog inspired by her dog Peter, which died in 1938. It was first published in the UK on 5 July 1937. 

During the Phony War she wrote Evil Under the Sun, Sleeping Murder and Curtain, the last to be stockpiled for the future. 

Evil Under the Sun was first published in the UK in June 1941. 

Sleeping Murder features Miss Marple. Released posthumously, it was the last published Christie novel, although not the last Miss Marple novel in order of writing. The story is explicitly set in 1944, but the first draft of the novel was possibly written during the Blitz in 1940. Miss Marple aids a young couple who choose to uncover events in the wife's past life, and not let sleeping murder lie.

Curtain: Poirot's Last Case was first published in the UK in September 1975. The novel features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings in their final appearances in Christie's works. It is a country house novel, with all the characters and the murder set in one house. Not only does the novel return the characters to the setting of her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, but it also reunites Poirot and Hastings, who last appeared together in Dumb Witness in 1937.  It is the last novel Christie published before her death. Sleeping Murder, written during the Blitz and published posthumously, is her final published novel.

Agatha was suspected to be a spy because she named a characer Major Bletchley in N or M?. Besides, she was acquainted with Dilly Knowx, who'd been involved in discovering the secrets of the Enigma Machine. Christie revealed she chose the name because she was once stuck at the real Bletchley train station on her way from Oxford to London, and she named the character after the place out of irritation.

Rosalind announced that she wanted to get married to Hubert de Burgh Prichard, a professioanl soldier of the Royal Welch Fusilliers. She did get married on 11 June 1940.