Q 01/05

Which TV series blamed Christie's 1926 disappearance on a giant alien wasp?

A) Doctor Who

B) Torchwood

C) Red Dwarf

D) Quantum Leap

Answer · why

A) Doctor Who

Doctor Who's 2008 episode 'The Unicorn and the Wasp' has the Doctor and Donna help Christie solve a country-house murder on the day she vanishes.

Q 02/05

In which English seaside town was Agatha Christie born in 1890?

A) Brighton

B) Bournemouth

C) Torquay

D) Scarborough

Answer · why

C) Torquay

In Torquay her mother thought children shouldn't learn to read until eight, but young Agatha taught herself to read years earlier.

Q 03/05

About how many copies of Agatha Christie's books have been sold worldwide?

A) About 60 million

B) About 200 million

C) About 650 million

D) About 2 billion

Answer · why

D) About 2 billion

About 2 billion copies have sold, yet her first novel was turned down by several publishers before The Bodley Head accepted it.

Q 04/05

What wartime job gave Christie her expert knowledge of poisons?

A) Codebreaking at Bletchley

B) Working in hospital dispensaries

C) Driving ambulances in France

D) Nursing on hospital ships

Answer · why

B) Working in hospital dispensaries

Working in hospital dispensaries, she qualified as an apothecary's assistant in 1917 and later put that poison lore into her plots.

Q 05/05

When Christie vanished, which author took one of her gloves to a medium?

A) Arthur Conan Doyle

B) H. G. Wells

C) Rudyard Kipling

D) J. M. Barrie

Answer · why

A) Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle hoped a medium could find her, while fellow crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers joined the search on the ground.