Agatha Christie her service in September 1918. After the war, Agatha and Archie Christie settled in a flat at 5 Northwick Terrace in St. John's Wood, northwest London. Christie had long been a fan of detective novels, having enjoyed Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone", as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes stories. She wrote her own detective novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", featuring Hercule Poirot, a former Belgian police officer noted for his twirly large "magnificent moustaches" and egg-shaped head. Poirot had taken refuge in Britain after Germany invaded Belgium. Christie's inspiration for the
Recurring characters in the Hercule Poirot stories the bourgeois Belgian is one of the stranger aspects of Poirot's world. He first met Poirot in Belgium in 1904 during the Abercrombie Forgery, and later that year joined forces again to hunt down a criminal known as Baron Altara. They also meet in England, where Poirot often helps Japp solve cases and lets him take the credit in return for special favours. These favours usually entail being supplied with cases that would interest him. George is the faithful valet of Hercule Poirot. In addition to these regular characters, it is noteworthy that all the gentlemen in the novels have