during her lifetime. The writing was finished by the end of 1966 with the draft being sent to Cork for his suggestions and a request for a copy to be typed for Christie's daughter Rosalind Hicks in order that she could offer her opinions. After Christie's death in 1976, the text was edited by Philip Ziegler of Collins in conjunction with Rosalind and her husband, Anthony. There is no record of Christie herself making any further alterations to the text in her lifetime. In the 1965 epilogue she stated that, "now that I have reached the age of seventy-five, it seems the right moment to stop…I live now on borrowed time, waiting in the ante-room for the summons that will inevitably come…I am ready now to accept death." Consequently, there is no mention of her later works, the award of the DBE in 1971 or successes such as the 1974 film of Murder on the Orient Express. She also admitted that she didn't follow a strict chronological and detailed order of the events of her life, instead wanting to "plunge my hand into a lucky dip and come up with a handful of assorted memories". The published work does mostly follow a chronological order (although how much of that is due to the work carried out in 1976–7 is not known); however, the book is by no means comprehensive. Upon publication there was an expectation that an explanation would be offered of her famous 1926 disappearance but none is forthcoming. The publisher's preface anticipates any disappointment felt when they admit to this omission on the first page but state, "the references elsewhere to an earlier attack on amnesia give the clue to the true course of events." Christie was enamoured all her life with the happiness of her childhood and her loving relationship with her mother and this is reflected in the text of An Autobiography. Within the 544 pages, the first appearance of her first husband, Archie Christie, does not take place until page 212 (as opposed to page 57 out of 394 in her official biography) and the death of Christie's mother in April 1926 (an event which triggered the events of that calamitous year in her life and which happened in her thirty-fifth year), does not occur until page 346. Christie deals sympathetically with her first husband, relating details of the initial happiness of their courtship and