In this area she wrote Sparkling Cyanide. It was first published in the UK in December 1945. The novel features the last appearance of the recurring character Colonel Race, to solve the mysterious deaths of a married couple, exactly one year apart.
As Max was away, Agatha turned to his friend, Stephen Glanville, for companionship. During these years they grew very close. Stephen Ranulph Kingdon Glanville (26 April 1900 – 26 April 1956) was an English historian and egyptologist. He was Edwards Professor of Egyptology at University College London from 1935 to 1946. Glanville was a close friend of the archaeologist Max Mallowan and his wife Agatha Christie. He was in service with Mallowan during WWII. Glanville was the source and inspiration for at least two of Christie's works, the historic mystery Death Comes as the End, and a play, Akhnaton. Both of these works are set in ancient Egypt, and Christie herself acknowledged in her autobiography that neither of these works would have been possible without Glanville.
Death Comes as the End is a historical mystery novel which was first published in the UK in March 1945. It is the only one of Christie's novels not to be set in the 20th century, and – unusually for her – also features no European characters. Instead, the novel is set in Thebes in the 11th dynasty.
This novel was inspired by the Heqanakht papyri. The Heqanakht Papyri are a group of papyri dating to the early Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt that were found in the tomb complex of Vizier Ipi. Their find was located in the burial chamber of a servant named Meseh. The papyri contain letters and accounts written by (or on behalf of) Heqanakht, a ka-priest of Ipi. Heqanakht himself was obliged to stay in the Theban area (probably because of his responsibilities in the necropolis), and thus wrote letters to his family, probably located somewhere near the capital of Egypt at that time, near the Faiyum. These letters and accounts were somehow lost and thus preserved. The significance of the papers is that they give rare and valuable information about lives of ordinary members of the lower upper class of Egypt during this period.
Rosalind's husband, Hubert, was reported missing in action, and months later Rosalind was notified that he had died on 16 August 1944 at Les Loges-Sulcet in Calvados. His death left Rosalind devastated and Agatha was in agony over her daughter.
Agatha wrote some novel under the pen name Mary Wesmacott. Free from the expectations of her mystery fans, she explored complex human emotions like love, jealousy, and possessiveness.
One of her novels was Absent In Spring. It was published in in August 1944. Stranded between trains, Joan Scudamore finds herself reflecting upon her life, her family, and finally coming to grips with the uncomfortable truths about her life.
Another novel was A Daughter's A Daughter. It was the fifth of six novels Christie wrote under the nom-de-plume Mary Westmacott. Initially a play written by Christie in the late 1930s, the plot tells of a daughter's opposition to her mother's plan to remarry.
The Rose and the Yew Tree was first published in the UK in November 1948. It is the fourth of six novels Christie published under the pen name Mary Westmacott, and the last of the Westmacott novels to be published before true identity of their author was publicly revealed in 1949.
Rosalind marries again. Her new husband is Anthony Hicks. Anthony Hicks (1916–2005) was a British lawyer.
Max and Agatha spent a great of time in Nimrud, and her book They Came to Baghdad is based on that time. They Came to Baghdad is a spy fiction and adventure novel and was first published in the United Kingdom on 5 March 1951. The book was inspired by Christie's own trips to Baghdad with her second husband, archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, and is also one of few Christie novels belonging to the action and spy fiction genres, rather than to mysteries and whodunnits.
Nimrud, anciently known as Kalhu, was a major capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire situated in northern Iraq. Founded in the 13th century BC, it became a grand royal residence under King Ashurnasirpal II in 883 BC. The city is historically famous for its magnificent palaces, colossal winged bull statues, and rich cuneiform archives.
Max and Agatha's digging ended in 1957 because Agatha was too old to lead the kind of life that a dig demanded. Apart from that, in 1958 the Hasheite Monarchy in Iraq fell to a new Republican Regime. , during the 14 July Revolution. A group of Iraqi army officers—led by General Abd al-Karim Qasim—launched a military coup, abolished the monarchy, and declared a republic. King Faisal II, Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah, and other royal family members were killed, permanently ending the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq.
Max wrote a book, Nimrud and Its Remains.
In the 1950s Agatha Christie's work was opposed by a group called Angry Young Men. The "angry young men" of the 1950s were a group of mostly working- and middle-class British playwrights and novelists. The group's leading figures included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis; other popular figures included John Braine, Alan Sillitoe, and John Wain. British media used the term to describe young writers who were characterised by a disillusionment with traditional British society.
In this period Agatha wrote the following works: A Murder Is Announced, After the Funeral, Crooked House and Ordeal by Innocence.
A Murder Is Announced is a mystery novel, first published in the UK in June 1950. The novel features her detective Jane Marple. The murder is announced in advance in a local newspaper in a small village; Miss Marple is staying at a spa hotel in a nearby town for treatment. She works with Inspector Craddock of the county police.
After the Funeral is a mystery novel, first published in UK on 18 May 1953. The book features the author's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
Crooked House is a mystery novel, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 23 May of 1949. The action takes place in and near London in the autumn of 1947. Christie said the titles of this novel and Ordeal by Innocence were her favourites amongst her own works.
Ordeal by Innocence is a mystery novel, first published in the UK on 3 November 1958.
A crucial witness is unaware of his role as such until two years after a man is found guilty of a murder. When he realizes the information he holds, he re-opens the pain of loss in a family, and re-opens the question of who the murderer was two years ago.
Klaus Fuchs and Bruno Pontecorvo were brilliant mid-century physicists who fled fascism, contributed to early atomic research, and became entangled with Soviet intelligence during the Cold War. While both defected, they had completely different paths and levels of involvement in espionage.
The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side used the real story of actress Gene Tierney about German measles. It was published in the UK in 1962. The story features amateur detective Miss Marple solving a mystery in St Mary Mead. The central plot device providing motivation for the initial murder derives from a real-life event in the life of the American actress Gene Tierney. Tierney had contracted German measles while pregnant with her first child, during her only appearance at the Hollywood Canteen in June 1943, resulting in the baby developing congenital rubella syndrome. The deaf, partially blind and developmentally disabled child was later institutionalised in a psychiatric hospital. More than a year after the birth, a woman asked Tierney for an autograph at a garden party. She said that, two years earlier while ill with German measles, she had skipped quarantine in order to visit the Hollywood Canteen and meet Tierney. Tierney described the event in her autobiography 16 years after Christie wrote the novel.
Agatha Christie was also successful in her plays. Alibi was first played by Charles Laughton. Alibi was based on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's West End on 15 May 1928, starring Charles Laughton as Hercule Poirot. It was deemed a success and ran for 250 performances closing on 7 December 1928. It was the first work of Agatha Christie's to be presented on stage and the first adaptation of one of her works for any medium outside of her books.
Then There Were None was adapted for the stage, but the ending was changing, and Vera and Lombard fall in love. And Then There Were None is a 1943 play by crime writer Agatha Christie. The play, like the 1939 book on which it is based, was originally titled and performed in the UK as Ten Little Niggers. It was also performed under the name Ten Little Indians.
The Mousetrap was the result of BBC asking Queen Mary to select a git for her eightieth birthday and she requested a new Agatha Christie play. The play was inspired by by Dennis O'Neill who died after terrible abused by his foster-parents. It is the longest-running West End show, it also has by far the longest run of any play in the world, reaching its 30,000th performance on 19 March 2025. The play opened in London's West End in 1952.
In 1956 she became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
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