Agatha Christie's bust is quite easy to miss

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Kevin Pilley
Agatha Christie's bust is quite easy to miss. It isn't that big.But everyone on the English Riviera will point you towards it. Thebronze bust has pride of place on a small patch of grass on CaryGreen opposite the copper-roofed, Doulton stone grand pavilion onthe seafront at Torquay. It is the only statue anywhere in theworld of the famously prolific crime writer, author of TheMousetrap and the creator of the maiden sleuth Miss Marple andPoirot , the dapper little Belgian detective with the egg-shapedhead.
The Christie family did not want their "Aggie" commemoratedanywhere else. "The Pavilion" was opened in 1912 as a concert hall.It is thought Dame Agatha's first husband proposed to her there.The statue looks away from the building.
"The Queen of Crime" wrote 80 novels, 19 plays, several short storycollections and a book of poems.
The Guinness Book of Records lists her as the best-selling fictionauthor of all time estimating 2-billion of her books have been soldin 103 languages worldwide. The statue was unveiled in 1990 byAgatha's daughter, the late Rosalind Hicks to commemorate thecentenary of the great mystery writer's birth.
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Barton Road, Torquay on thesouth-west coast of England. Ashfield, a large Victorian mansion onMount Stuart , was her home for five decades. It was demolished in1962 despite a last-ditch attempt to buy it back and convert intoan old people's home. Christie describes its greenhouse in Posternof Fate. Nothing remains now but a boundary wall. And a plaque.
Agatha said that growing up she enjoyed " a high standard ofdomestic comfort". She led a privileged, genteel childhood ofcountry house dances, society balls held at places like ChurstonCourt and Oldway Mansion, originally built for Isaac Singer of thesewing machine fame.
It was a life of leisure, parlourmaids, ankle-length skirts,feathered hats and whalebone corsets "giving red sore places".
Torquay was a party town and fashionable resort. It boasted moreroyal visitors than anywhere in the world. Agatha's father,Frederick Miller, was an American and a man of means kept by hisgrandparents. Agatha loved him greatly. He died when she was only11. Her mother, Clara was English and aristocratic.
Educated at home Agatha learned to read at the age of 3. Mostchildren didn't start until 8. Her first published piece was a poemabout electric trams. It appeared in a London newspaper when shewas 11. Agatha met Lieutenant Archie Christie of the Royal FlyingCorps at a ball at Ugbrooke House near Exeter. She described himas: "A tall fair young man with crisp curly hair, an interestingnose, turned up not down, and a great deal of careless confidenceabout him."
He asked for a divorce shortly after Agatha's mother's death in1926 causing her infamous 11-day disappearance before beingeventually found in Harrogate in Yorkshire.
Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair At Styles waspublished by John Lane in 1920. She received