Agatha Christie's responsible daughter who protected her mother's literary legacy

Imagine yourself waking up as the only child of one of the best female authors, who has written many bestselling novels.

How your relationship with your mother would be in such a case?

Why I asked this question is because sometimes I wonder what would Agatha Christie’s daughter Rosalind Hicks think and feel in everyday life.

Her relationship with Agatha Christie would certainly be more than only a mother-daughter relation. This is evident from the fact that Agatha Christie’s daughter had been protective of her mother’s legacy.

She disapproved of several biographies written by different authors and never spoke about those 11 missing days of Agatha Christie’s disappearance.

In this article, you will get a sneak-peek into the life of Agatha Christie’s only daughter, Rosalind Hicks.

Rosalind Hicks biography

Many people google this question how many children did Agatha Christie have.

Agatha had only one daughter Rosalind Margaret Clarrisa Hicks born on 5th August 1919 in Ashfield Torquay, five years after her parents got married.

Agatha Christie had Rosalind with her first husband, Archie Christie, who was a flying officer in the Royal Flying Corps.

When she was one year old, her mother’s first novel ‘The Mysterious Affair At Styles’ was published, which went on to be hugely successful.

Agatha and her husband shifted to a house in Sunningdale which they named ‘Styles’ when Rosalind was about 7 years old.

Around this time, Archie Christie opened up about his affair with his mistress Nancy Neele which deeply disturbed Agatha.

This led to their parent's separation.

Archie Christie married his mistress in 1928 and had a boy with her, Archibald - the stepbrother of Rosalind.

In the same year, Agatha Christie married Sir Max Mallowan, an archeologist who was 15 years younger than her.

Max introduced her stepdaughter to archeology and the East side of the world, Egypt.

Rosalind did her education in Switzerland and France. At the age of 21, she married Major Hubert de Burr Prichard, who died in the Battle of Normandy in 1944.

Rosalind gave birth to her son, Hubert Prichard, in the year 1943, one year before her husband’s death.

She later went on to marry Anthony Hicks, a lawyer by profession in 1949 and remained married to him till her death.

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Rosalind travelled with Anthony around the world. He was her ideal companion.

She shifted to the Greenway estate in 1968 with her husband where she grew some amazing wooded gardens.

This Greenway estate, on the banks of River Dart, was bought by Agatha Christie in 1938.

Agatha Christie's relationship with her daughter

The relationship between Rosalind and Agatha was less of a mother-daughter and more of a big grown-up and little grown-up as stated rightly by ahsweetmysteryblog

Rosalind saw a lot of ups and downs during her childhood.

She saw her mother’s rise to prominence as Agatha Christie, the author of ‘The Mysterious Affair At Styles’, ‘The Murder of Roger Acroyd’ on one hand.

On the other hand, she saw her parents getting divorced when she was only 7 years old. She did remain dedicated to her father even after the separation.

From Agatha’s autobiography ‘An Autobiography’ we come to know that she liked her daughter very much.

In her autobiography she mentioned how she finds newborn babies little ugly and in comparison, her daughter was a ‘nice-looking baby’, with her head full of hair unlike how several newborn babies look bald and pink.

When Rosalind was small, Agatha and her husband Archie travelled around the world leaving Rosalind to babysitters and relatives such as her sister.

But this didn’t disturb her relation with Rosalind instead this helped Rosalind become more mature.

Agatha would make sure to read Rosalind books after dinner on the dining table which shows she was a responsible parent.

When Rosalind was 11, Agatha had an important conversation with her about the former’s remarriage.

On asking her, if Agatha should marry the archeologist Max Mallowan, Rosalind’s response was positive and more mature than her age.

Agatha considered her daughter as a ‘little adult’, the references of which are seen in few of her novels as well.

Her protective attitude towards her mother’s legacy, leads us to believe that Rosalind responded well to Agatha’s style of parenting.

Rosalind - A good daughter

Rosalind never spoke of those 11 days of Agatha Christie’s disappearance publicly. This incident happened when she was only 7 years old.

Rosalind also rejected a couple of movies made on the incident of her mother’s disappearance to protect her mother’s privacy.

She tried to stop the release of the 1979 movie ‘Agatha’ starring Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave, however her attempt was unsuccessful.

Rosalind understood her mother’s work well.

She understood that the only way to protect the authenticity of Agatha Christie’s novels and plays is to prevent them from being commercialized.

She thus rejected biographical representations of Christie written by many authors, eventually saying yes to Janet Morgan to write the autobiography of her mother in 1984.

Rosalind Hicks was careful in choosing who played Poirot in film and television adaptations of Christie’s novels.

She never approved of Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov to be cast as Hercule Poirot, who went on to play Poirot in the film adaptations of Christie’s most successful novels such as Death On The Nile(1978), Evil Under The Sun(1982).

Read More : The most intriguing novel of Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders

She gave the nod to cast John Suchet and Joan Hickson as Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple in the adaptations of Christie’s novels on television.

When Rosalind Hicks became the president of Agatha Christie Society in 1993, John Suchet and Joan Hickson became the vice presidents.

Rosalind showed fortitude to maintain the integrity of her mother’s name. She stood with confidence against claims that Christie’s novels were mere predictable mysteries.

I certainly agree with Rosalind and you would too.

Not even in a single Agatha Christie novel I could predict who was the killer and the logic behind it.

Christie explored relationships in her novels even when the plot revolved around crime.

The settings and backdrops inspired by her real life experiences added depth to the plot.

Each of her novels had substance and they were pretty different from one another.

Inheritance of Agatha Christie’s fortune

Agatha Christie passed away in 1976.

Her wealth (approx 14.8 million pounds) was inherited by Rosalind Hicks.

She also inherited 36% of Agatha Christie Ltd as well as the copyrights to her play ‘A Daughter’s a daughter’.

After her death, her son Mathew Prichard (born 1943) inherited the 36% of Agatha Christie Ltd.

Mathew Prichard also received on her 9th birthday the copyrights of the most famous Agatha Christie’s play - The Mousetrap.

Mathew Prichard, the grandson of Agatha Christie is now the beneficiary of the money received from the royalties. Agatha Christie still makes money from her novels and plays even after more than 40 years of her death.

A daughter every mother must have, especially the celebrity mothers

Agatha Christie’s daughter Rosalind Hicks did everything which Agatha would have liked her to do.

Agatha was a clever businesswoman who didn’t want to leave too much of her fortune, which is why, later she chose to write only 1 book per year.

Rosalind being a good daughter always maintained her stance clear. She never updated any of Christie’s novels, neither allowed merchandising Poirot and never tinkered with her mother’s works.

On 28th October 2004, Rosalind left the world leaving behind Mathew and Anthony.

Her husband passed away only six months after her death.

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