The only child of author Agatha Christie and from the time of Christie's death in 1976 worked to maintain and strengthen the reputation of her mother as a literary figure, and to protect the integrity of her works.

She established a reputation as a forthright and occasionally fierce woman, who fought to ensure that the books and plays her mother had written would not be exploited, and that any projects that made use of them, would not alter or discredit them.

After several years of refusals Hicks finally agreed in the early 1980s to allow a biography to be written about Agatha Christie. This resulted in a publication in 1984 by author Janet Morgan which received generally positive reviews.

Hicks founded, and was the president of the Agatha Christie Society from 1993 until her death. Her stated aim was to ensure Christie's works did not suffer from excessive commercialisation or trivialisation.

She lived in Christie's 278 acre (1.1 km²) estate† “Greenway”, on the River Dart [in Devon, England], from 1968 until her death, however in 2000 she transferred much of the land to the National Trust.

At the time of her death it was reported that her estate was valued at 600 million pounds sterling. [$950,882,974 as of January 2011*].
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*As calculated at this web site: http://coinmill.com/GBP_calculator.html

†The house was occupied by Rosalind’s mother and husband Max Mallowan until their deaths in 1976 and 1978 respectively. Rosalind and her husband Anthony lived in the house from 1968.

The garden is open to the public as is the Barn Gallery, which shows work by contemporary local artists. The house's restoration is complete and is open to the public.5369