Agatha Christie, (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976)

  A British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections (especially those featuring Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple), and her successful West End plays. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time and, with William Shakespeare, the best-selling author of any type. She has sold roughly four billion copies of her novels.