Agatha Christie and the problem of influences

The author aims to find out the origin of some detective stories of A. Christie based on the writer’s «An Autobiography». The childhood years, games and hobbies played an important role in her formation. Christie’s interest in the detective genre was aroused by her mother, and other relatives, acquaintances, external environment. Thinking over the fabula the novelist often remembered the episodes from the biographies of her loved ones, both past incidents and current events. The contradictions of the epoch portrayed in her creativity were found in the mystical and materialistic perception of the world, in particular. Hercule Poirot is a collective image synthesized from the traits of the writer, her grandmothers, husband, father, and famous people. Christie’s detectives can be a «mirror» that reflected the life of the author whose creativity was sourced by the past.