Queens of Crime: Rendell & Christie 📚

Video 1
Complete the chart with notes on what you remember about the two writers’ lives and books.
Ruth Rendell
Agatha Christie
her life:

born

parents

marriages

other things


her books

first novel

detectives

pseudonyms

films

approach to crime writing



answers :
Ruth Rendell
her life
– born: in London in 1930
– parents: father was English, mother was Danish
– marriages: married twice to Don Rendell in 1950 and 1977
– other things: worked as a journalist, died 2015
her books
– first novel: published 1964, From Doon with Death
– detectives: Inspector Wexford
– pseudonyms: Barbara Vine
– films: La Ceremonie, Carne Tremula, and others
– approach to crime writing: interested in characters, and why
murder is committed
Agatha Christie
her life
– born: in Torquay, south-west of England, in 1890
– parents: father was American, mother was English
– marriages: married Archie Christie 1914, married Max
Mallowan 1930
– other things: disappeared for 11 days in 1926
her books
– first novel: published 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles
– two detectives: Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple
– pseudonyms: Mary Westmacott
– films: Murder on the Orient Express and others
– approach to crime writing: interested in plots, and who
committed a murder

Tapescript
Queens of crime
Crime fiction is loved all over the world: from British writers – like
Arthur Conan Doyle and Val McDermid – to Americans – like
Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith – to Scandinavian and
European writers – like Henning Mankel and Georges Simenon. But
two British novelists are called ‘Queens of Crime’ : Agatha Christie
and Ruth Rendell.
Ruth Grasemann was born in London in 1930. Her father was English
and her mother was Danish. After she left school, she became a
journalist. She married Don Rendell, who was also a journalist.
In 1964, Rendell published the first Inspector Wexford novel From
Doon with Death. Wexford, a British policeman, who appeared in
twenty-four novels and some short stories, is still Rendell’s bestknown
character, over fifty years after his first appearance.
In 1975, Ruth and Don Rendell got divorced, but they remarried in
1977. Ruth Rendell continued to write and she also started to write
under the pseudonym, Barbara Vine. The Barbara Vine novels are
also crime novels, but they are much darker and more psychological.
Some of her novels have been made into films, not only in English,
but in other languages too. The French film, La Cérémonie, was
adapted from the novel, Judgement in Stone, and Pedro Almodovar’s
film, Carne Trémula, is also based on a Rendell novel, Live Flesh.
Ruth Rendell died in 2015. Today she is considered a Queen of Crime,
but most people would probably agree that the original Queen of
Crime is Agatha Christie.
Agatha Miller was born in Torquay in the south west of England in
1890. Her father was American and her mother British. In 1914, she
married Archie Christie, who was an army pilot.
Christie started to write and published her first novel in 1920, The
Mysterious Affair at Styles, in which she created a Belgian private
detective, Hercule Poirot.
In December 1926, Christie became the centre of her very own
mystery, when she suddenly disappeared from the family home in
Sunningdale near London. Her disappearance was big news in the
UK and in the US. For eleven days, the police and the press searched
for her. The police also asked Arthur Conan Doyle – the creator of
Sherlock Holmes – for help, but even he couldn’t solve the mystery.
The police eventually found Christie in Harrogate in the north of
England. She apparently couldn’t remember anything and the
mystery of her disappearance was never solved. Soon afterwards,
she and Archie divorced.
Agatha Christie continued to write. She also married again – to Max
Mallowan, who was an archaeologist. This marriage was happy. She
created another detective, Jane Marple. Miss Marple is a little old,
English lady. She lives in a small village and solves crimes quietly
and often without leaving her armchair. She is totally different from
Hercule Poirot, who Christie described as ‘a complete egoist’. She
also wrote more personal novels under the pseudonym of Mary
Westmacott.
Agatha Christie died in 1976, but her books are still read all over the
world, and watched in films – like Murder on the Orient Express –
plays – like The Mousetrap – and television series – like the Miss
Marple series.
Ruth Rendell and Agatha Christie had many things in common.
They were both very successful crime writers, and they both wrote
different novels under pseudonyms. They both divorced and
remarried. And they’re also both strongly associated with the
detectives they created.
But their approaches were very different. Rendell was always more
interested in characters, while Christie loved plots. And, while
Agatha Christie’s readers will read to the end to find out who
committed the murder, Ruth Rendell’s readers will also want to find
out why.