Agatha Christie was born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, Devon, as the daughter of a wealthy family. In 1912, Agatha Miller met Colonel Archibald Christie, whom she married at the outbreak of World War I. The marriage was dissolved in 1928. Two years later, she married Max E.L. Mallowan, a professor of Near Eastern archaeology who was 14 years her junior, and whom she accompanied on many research trips to the Orient as his assistant. Throughout her life, the "Queen of Crime" wrote 73 detective novels, countless short stories, 20 plays, 6 romance novels (under the pseudonym "Mary Westmacott"), a poetry collection, an autobiographical account of her archaeological expeditions, and her autobiography. Her detective novels are published in over 100 countries, and Agatha Christie is regarded as the most successful writer of all time. In 1965, she was honored with the "Order of the British Empire" for her literary work. Agatha Christie passed away on January 12, 1976, at the age of 85.