Agatha Christie is the world’s best selling author and rightly regarded as the queen of crime. But less well known is her medical service in both world wars, and its influence on her writing.

Without WW1, there would be no Poirot. Agatha Christie trained as nurse and served as a red cross volunteer in WW1, encountering many Belgian refugees. She later trained to become a dispenser. In the second world war she served once again.

In this episode we explore that work, and the experiences and people - and poisons - she encountered would prove to be the perfect fuel for her writing career.

Guest

Tina Hodgkinson is a historian and the author of Agatha Christie’s London: A Historical Guide to the Queen of Crime’s Capital. She is employed at The London Archives, the UK’s second largest public archive. A member of the Crime Writers’ Association and a qualified City of London and City of Westminster tour guide.

Cats present

Cecilia

Useful links

Agatha Christie’s London: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/agatha-christie-s-london-a-historical-guide-to-the-queen-of-crime-s-capital-tina-hodgkinson/29844c0f963a617b?ean=9781837050796&bkshp-astro=t

Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices