Too often a photograph of a famous person forever seals in our minds the image of that person at the age when that photo was taken.

It's hard to imagine Winston Churchill or Ernest Hemingway at any age other than the ones depicted in their most iconic photos.

Think about most of the photographs you've seen of Agatha Christie. These photos show a regal, gracious middle-aged lady. We never see the Queen of Crime Fiction as a young woman.

But the updated reissue of An Autobiography may change that.

Imagine Agatha Christie as a surfer. And not just a regular rider of the waves. According to An Autobiography, Christie was one of Britain's first stand-up surfers. She was an avid bodyboarder, taking up the sport during a 1922 holiday in South Africa with her husband, Archie. That's the stuff of songs by the Beach Boys.

The new edition of An Autobiography, originally published in 1977, is due out in December from Harper, capping off the 120th anniversary of Christie's birthday.

The new hardcover edition will feature 24 pages of photographs in black and white and in color, and a CD of newly discovered recordings of Christie dictating parts of this autobiography. An introduction by Mathew Prichard, Christie’s grandson, explains how he found the tapes used to make the recordings.

Just paging through the advanced readers copy of An Autobiography that arrived the other day intrigued me. I am especially looking forward to seeing photos of the young Agatha Christie, who 35 years after her death, is still entertaining.