**Born Torquay, September 15, 1890

also had homes by the River Dart, in Devon, and in Chelsea

**had no formal education

**was worth an estimated £10m when she died in 1976

**went to Paris, aged 16, to become a singer

**gained expert knowledge of poisons after qualifying as a dispenser in a French hospital

**published 83 books, including novels, plays, short stories and poetry

**career breakthrough came in 1926 after seventh novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

**wrote romance novels under the strictly-guarded pen-name Mary Westmacott

**according to a UNESCO report, she has been translated into 103 languages, reportedly 14 more than Shakespeare

**was a keen photographer and horticulturist, and won many local gardening prizes

**became CBE in 1956, and DBE in 1971

**second husband was orientalist Sir Max Mallowan, former emeritus professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology in the University of London

**travels with Sir Max to the Middle East may have inspired classics such as Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile

**in 1952, penned record-breaking play The Mousetrap, which is now in the 49th year of its West End run.

**veteran Herald reporter Mike Hambleton once covered the story of a burglary at her Wallingford home

**donations for her 1990 centenary paid for 25 trees to be planted at St Mary's Church, in Cholsey

**grave stone inscription says:

Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,

Ease after war, death after life does greatly please.