And you are my life,
We are apart, love,
And I am your wife.
God then have pity
And bring you to me
Here in the city
From over the sea.
When you come home, love,
What words will there be?
You will say “Sunflower”
And say it to me.
Enchantment
I LOST my love, she left me.
My fair love,
My false love,
My fair false love.
I wandered to the Fairy Hills,
I cried to them to mend my ills,
I called to my lost love,
My fair love, my false love.
I saw a Fairy Lady there
With long white hands and drowning hair …
And oh!—her face was wild and sweet,
Was sweet and wild,
Was wild and strange and fair …
Her eyes looked past me,
Through me and beyond me,
Seeking for a vanished Fairy Lover.
I walked by her side there,
Down a Fairy Ride there,
Seeking for a vanished Fairy Lover.
I cried to the Hills there
That they should mend my ills there,
I called to my lost love,
My fair love, my false fair love.
But the Fairy Lady by my side
She neither spoke nor moaned nor cried
But pushed aside her drowning hair
And oh! her face was wild and sweet
And sweet and wild and fair …
And now I am at home again
And many seek to ease my pain
They say in time I shall forget
My fair love,
My false love,
My fair false love …
And no one knows to look at me
That all the time I only see
Two long white hands and drowning hair
And oh! a face so wild and strange and fair …
Jenny by the Sky
(From Star over Bethlehem)
COME down to me, Jenny, come down from the hill,
Come down to me here where I wait,
Come down to my arms, to my lips, my desire,
Come down all my hunger to sate.
But Jenny walks lonely, her head in the air,
She walks on the hilltop, the wind in her hair,
She will not come down to me, loud though I cry,
She walks with the wind, upturned face to the sky …
In the cool of the evening I walked in the glade,
And there I met God … and I was not afraid.
Together we walked in the depths of the wood
And together we looked at the things we had made,
Together we looked—and we saw they were good …
God made the World and the stars set on high,
The Galaxies rushing, none knows where or why.
God fashioned the Cosmos, the Universe wide,
And the hills and the valleys, the birds in the wood,
God made them and loved them, and saw they were good …
And I—have made Jenny! To walk on the hill.
She will not come down to me loud though I cry;
She walks there for ever, her face to the sky,
She will not come down though I call her,
She will not come down to my greed,
She is as I dreamed her … and made her
Of my loving and longing and need …
With my mind and my heart I made Jenny,
I made her of love and desire,
I made her to walk on the hilltop
In loneliness, beauty and fire …
In the cool of the evening I walked in the wood
And God walked beside me …
We both understood.
Verses of Nowadays
From a Grown-up to a Child
THE fairies talk to little girls,
They push aside their golden curls
And whisper in a shell-pink ear—
But what they say we cannot hear.
We grown-ups are so tall and proud
And fairies hate to shout aloud.
The fairies run along the ground
And baby girls can hear the sound,
They double up, and crow and kick
And beg their mothers to look quick.
But when we look, they’ve always past,
The little fairies run so fast.
The fairies stay awake all night
So little girls need take no fright,
For if the night light does go out
They know the fairies are about,
And they can hear their silky wings—
They are so kind, these darling things!
I Wore My New Canary Suit
I WORE my new canary suit
To go and meet my love,
We talked and talked of everything
In earth and heaven above.
I went again to meet my love,
The years had flitted by,
I wore my old canary suit
To bid my love goodbye.
I took it to a jumble sale
But brought it back once more
And hung it on an inner peg
Within my cupboard door.
I shall not meet my love again
For he is in his grave.
So—I’ve an old moth-eaten suit
And he is young and brave …
Racial Musings
PRESUMPTIVE is Man to claim the right
To arbitrate between God’s creatures so
And place a gulf between the Black and White
Deeper than sea or ocean waters flow.
So strange it seems, this unpigmented pride,
The paleness of a skin that knows not sun …
Men all are built of bone;
How hard then to decide
If they are Apes or Men
When life is done!
Some think, and more than one,
That coffee-coloured children meet the case,
It is our duty so to take one’s fun
That the resulting mixture has a face
That nicely illustrates Mendelian lore.
Oh, coffee-coloured world,
You’ll be a BORE.
Satiety but no variety.
A BORE. A BORE. A BORE.
Picnic 1960
AFTERNOON Tea by the side of the road
That is the meal that I love,
Hundreds of cars rushing past all the time,
Sunshine and clouds up above!
Get out the chairs and set up the tea,
Serviettes, too, are a must.
Never a moment that’s quiet or dull,
Sausage rolls flavoured with dust!
Time to go home? Strew the orange peel round,
Leave paper and portions of pie,
Pack up the crocks and get into the queue,
Perfect picnic place, love, and goodbye …
About the Author
Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She is the author of eighty crime novels and short-story collections, nineteen plays, two memoirs, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott.
She first tried her hand at detective fiction while working in a hospital dispensary during World War I, creating the now legendary Hercule Poirot with her debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. With The Murder in the Vicarage, published in 1930, she introduced another beloved sleuth, Miss Jane Marple. Additional series characters include the husband-and-wife crime-fighting team of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, private investigator Parker Pyne, and Scotland Yard detectives Superintendent Battle and Inspector Japp.
M
any of Christie’s novels and short stories were adapted into plays, films, and television series. The Mousetrap, her most famous play of all, opened in 1952 and is the longest-running play in history. Among her best-known film adaptations are Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978), with Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov playing Hercule Poirot, respectively. On the small screen Poirot has been most memorably portrayed by David Suchet, and Miss Marple by Joan Hickson and subsequently Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie.
Christie was first married to Archibald Christie and then to archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, whom she accompanied on expeditions to countries that would also serve as the settings for many of her novels. In 1971 she achieved one of Britain’s highest honors when she was made a Dame of the British Empire. She died in 1976 at the age of eighty-five. Her one hundred and twentieth anniversary was celebrated around the world in 2010.
www.AgathaChristie.com
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Praise
“Agatha Christie has provided entertainment, suspense, and temporary relief from the anxieties and traumas of life both in peace and war for millions through the world.”—P.D. James, New York Times bestselling author
Other Works
THE AGATHA CHRISTIE COLLECTION
The Man in the Brown Suit
The Secret of Chimneys
The Seven Dials Mystery
The Mysterious Mr. Quin
The Sittaford Mystery
Parker Pyne Investigates
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
Murder Is Easy
The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories
And Then There Were None
Towards Zero
Death Comes as the End
Sparkling Cyanide
The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories
Crooked House
Three Blind Mice and Other Stories
They Came to Baghdad
Destination Unknown
Ordeal by Innocence
Double Sin and Other Stories
The Pale Horse
Star over Bethlehem: Poems and Holiday Stories
Endless Night
Passenger to Frankfurt
The Golden Ball and Other Stories
The Mousetrap and Other Plays
The Harlequin Tea Set
The Hercule Poirot Mysteries
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Murder on the Links
Poirot Investigates
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Big Four
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Peril at End House
Lord Edgware Dies
Murder on the Orient Express
Three Act Tragedy
Death in the Clouds
The A.B.C. Murders
Murder in Mesopotamia
Cards on the Table
Murder in the Mews
Dumb Witness
Death on the Nile
Appointment with Death
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Sad Cypress
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Evil Under the Sun
Five Little Pigs
The Hollow
The Labors of Hercules
Taken at the Flood
The Under Dog and Other Stories
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead
After the Funeral
Hickory Dickory Dock
Dead Man’s Folly
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Clocks
Third Girl
Hallowe’en Party
Elephants Can Remember
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case
The Miss Marple Mysteries
The Murder at the Vicarage
The Body in the Library
The Moving Finger
A Murder Is Announced
They Do It with Mirrors
A Pocket Full of Rye
4:50 from Paddington
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
A Caribbean Mystery
At Bertram’s Hotel
Nemesis
Sleeping Murder
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories
The Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries
The Secret Adversary
Partners in Crime
N or M?
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Postern of Fate
Memoirs
An Autobiography
Come, Tell Me How You Live
Back Ad
THE HERCULE POIROT MYSTERIES
Match your wits with the famous Belgian detective.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Murder on the Links
Poirot Investigates
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Big Four
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Peril at End House
Lord Edgware Dies
Murder on the Orient Express
Three Act Tragedy
Death in the Clouds
The A.B.C. Murders
Murder in Mesopotamia
Cards on the Table
Murder in the Mews
Dumb Witness
Death on the Nile
Appointment with Death
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Sad Cypress
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Five Little Pigs
The Hollow
The Labors of Hercules
Taken at the Flood
The Under Dog and Other Stories
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead
After the Funeral
Hickory Dickory Dock
Dead Man’s Folly
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Clocks
Third Girl
Hallowe’en Party
Elephants Can Remember
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case
THE MISS MARPLE MYSTERIES
Join the legendary spinster sleuth from St. Mary Mead in solving murders far and wide.
The Murder at the Vicarage
The Body in the Library
The Moving Finger
A Murder Is Announced
They Do It with Mirrors
A Pocket Full of Rye
4:50 From Paddington
The Mirror Crack’d
A Caribbean Mystery
At Bertram’s Hotel
Nemesis
Sleeping Murder
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Story Collection
THE TOMMY AND TUPPENCE MYSTERIES
Jump on board with the entertaining crime-solving couple from Young Adventurers Ltd.
The Secret Adversary
Partners in Crime
N or M?
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Postern of Fate
Don’t miss a single one of Agatha Christie’s stand-alone novels and short-story collections.
The Man in the Brown Suit
The Secret of Chimneys
The Seven Dials Mystery
The Mysterious Mr. Quin
The Sittaford Mystery
Parker Pyne Investigates
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
Murder Is Easy
The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories
And Then There Were None
Towards Zero
Death Comes as the End
Sparkling Cyanide
The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories
Crooked House
Three Blind Mice and Other Stories
They Came to Baghdad
Destination Unknown
Ordeal by Innocence
Double Sin and Other Stories
The Pale Horse
Star over Bethlehem: Poems and Holiday Stories
Endless Night
Passenger to Frankfurt
The Golden
Ball and Other Stories
The Mousetrap and Other Plays
The Harlequin Tea Set
Explore more at www.AgathaChristie.com
See your favorite detectives come to life on screen!
These and other DVDs and downloads available now at:
www.acornonline.com
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
An engaging chronicle of the life of an extraordinary writer, in an all-new edition that includes a CD featuring Agatha Christie’s voice and a new introduction.
“Joyful adventure … She brings the sense of wonder … to her extraordinary career.”
—New York Times Book Review
Hardcover
978-0-06-207359-4
$29.99 ($38.99 Can.)
Explore more at www.AgathaChristie.com
Credits
Author photograph © Christie Archives Trust
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
AGATHA CHRISTIE® STAR OVER BETHLEHEM™. Copyright © 1965 Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion company). All rights reserved.
STAR OVER BETHLEHEM © 1965. THE ROAD OF DREAMS © 1924. POEMS © 1973. Published by permission of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
For more information about educational use, teachers should visit www.HarperAcademic.com.
FIRST HARPER PAPERBACK PUBLISHED 2011.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-06-207430-0
EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062122018
11 12 13 14 15 DIX/BVG 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1