Agatha Christie's Wartime Experiences Inspired Poirot

©BBC - The volunteer nurses in The Crimson Field

Agatha Christie's experiences as a nurse in WWI inspired her to writer her first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

First published in the UK in 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Hercule Poirot's debut novel, tells the story of a soldier who is home on leave after an injury. In 1917 Britain, Lieutenant Hastings goes to the house Styles Court to recuperate at the invitation of a friend. Whilst there, he meets his old friend Hercule Poirot, a Belgian refugee. Of course, there is the brutal murder of the owner of the house, murder by strychnine poisoning. Among the suspects is a VAD.

Agatha Christie was inspired by her wartime experiences, and it drove her to write her first novel. In the same way Christie was inspired, writer Sarah Phelps was also inspired by the notebooks of volunteer nurses in WWI, which helped form the basis for the new BBC series The Crimson Field (pictured left).


Here are some of Agatha Christie's real experiences of war, taken from her autobiography:
'Suddenly the theatre walls reeled around me...It had never occurred to me that the sight of blood or wounds would make me faint.'
'I remember one serious-faced sergeant whose love letters I had to write for him. He could not read or write. He told me roughly what he wanted me to say. "That will do very nicely Nurse," he would nod, when I read it over to him. "Write it in triplicate, will you" ' She had to write letters to all three of his girlfriends!

Agatha Christie said, 'Since I was surrounded by poisons, perhaps it was natural that death by poisoning should be the method I selected.'