Agatha Said, pt. 13
Happy March! Today I’m sharing a powerful quote, along with one of my absolute favorite stories about Agatha Christie. I think it says so much about who she was.
Agatha Said:
“I do not enjoy big parties, but I can go to them, and whatever I feel is not really shyness. I suppose, actually, the feeling is — I don’t know whether every author feels it, but I think quite a lot do — that I am pretending to be something I am not, because, even nowadays, I do not quite feel as though I am an author. I still have that overlag of feeling that I am pretending to be an author.”
The Context: This quote follows what is my absolute favorite story of Agatha. In this section, she’s remembering the tenth anniversary of The Mousetrap, her most successful play. There was going to be a grand party at the Savoy, with lots of media and important guests. Quite naturally, Agatha was asked to attend the event and say a few words. She hated speeches and suffered from terrible stage fright her whole life, so this was already guaranteed to be a stressful occasion for her.
The play’s producer asked Agatha to arrive at the Savoy thirty minutes before the event. When she tried to enter the reserved space, she was told that people were not being admitted just yet. Instead of saying, “Excuse me, I’m the guest of honor and I was told to be here early,” Agatha simply turned around and walked away, where she wandered the corridors, “trying to get up my courage to go back and say — in effect, like Margo Asquith — ‘I’m ME!'”
Fortunately, she was found by the producer’s general manager who laughed heartily and then escorted her into the event. I’m guessing the person who turned her away at the door felt incredibly foolish.
Why I Chose It: I absolutely love what this experience tells us about Agatha Christie. After the kind of success she’d had at that point, she would’ve been well within her rights to make sure everyone knew who she was and was aware of her success. But instead, she was remarkably humble throughout her life and never seemed to think of herself as anyone important, in spite of all the evidence proving she was very much a big deal.
Throughout her autobiography, it’s clear Agatha would rather observe or experience life than be the focus of attention from large crowds. She was the complete opposite of a fame-seeker. She didn’t want to be fawned over, and she never seemed to feel she deserved admiration. This specific quote really highlights how no one is immune from Imposter Syndrome. Even a literary legend felt she was pretending to be an author, playing the role for the crowds. It’s comforting to know that every creator who struggles with Imposter Syndrome is in most excellent company.
