Agatha Christie’s book sales kept increasing, and she expanded into writing radio and stage plays. She did well in the U.K., but it was the cash from American publications and serializations in magazines like Colliers and Cosmopolitan that helped her accumulate real estate; at the time, the top U.K. income tax rate was 90%, but foreign income was exempt from taxation. Since Christie’s prose was straightforward, her work was quick and cheap to translate, so other foreign royalties started rolling in, too. But by the 1950s, U.K. tax laws would catch up with her, and Christie toned down her output to roughly one book a year. She was unwilling to … Continue reading Rebecca Brinson