The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery

by Agatha Christie

Paperback, 2013

Status

Available

Call number

PR6005.H66 Z48

Genres

Biography & Memoir

Biography

Publication

William Morrow Paperbacks (2013), Edition: Illustrated, 384 pages

Description

"In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a ten-month voyage around the world. Her husband, Archibald Christie, had been invited to join a trade mission to promote the British Empire Exhibition, and Christie was determined to go with him. It was a life-changing decision for the young novelist, a true voyage of discovery that would inspire her future writing for years to come. Placing her two-year-old daughter in the care of her sister, Christie set sail at the end of January and did not return home until December. Throughout her journey, she kept up a detailed weekly correspondence with her mother, describing the exotic places and the remarkable people she encountered as the mission traveled through South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Canada. Reproduced here for the first time, the letters are full of tales of seasickness and sunburn, motor trips and surfboarding, glamor and misery. The Grand Tour also brings to life the places and people Christie encountered through the photos she took on her portable camera, as well as some of the original postcards, newspaper cuttings, and memorabilia she collected on her trip. Edited and introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, and accompanied by reminiscences from her own autobiography, this unique travelogue reveals a new adventurous side to Agatha Christie, one that would ultimately influence the stories that made her a household name"--Jacket.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member SylviaC

An album of Agatha and Archie Christie's trip around the world with the British Empire Exhibition Mission in 1922. Their grandson put this book together from photo albums, letters home, and excerpts from Agatha's autobiography. Since I recently read the autobiography, I was already familiar with

most of the events, but the pictures and letters added another dimension to the narrative. An enjoyable look at a different era.

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LibraryThing member kaitanya64

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie and was eager to read this. However, I was a little disappointed. I'm not sure what I expected, as Christie's writing is descriptive and humorous. Perhaps her amazing mystery writing gives this a little too much build up. It's very entertaining in parts and a

great picture of the time. Christie and her husband travel to several parts of the British Empire, including Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and Canada. But at some point one can just not find that much entertainment in reading of yet one more "interesting" woman that Christie meets or reading a description of yet one more tour of a fruit farm. I think my favorite parts were when Christie shows her more adventurous side, as when she learns to surf and also reading and thinking about the difference in culture when it was seen as more important for a woman to accompany her husband on a several month's tour around the world than to be with her three year old daughter. Our view of parenthood and the role of a "wife" has certainly changed.

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LibraryThing member ladycato

The Grand Tour is interesting, not simply because it's insightful regarding the life of Agatha Christie, but how it depicts a large swath of the world in 1922. Agatha's husband Archie was offered a job as part of the British Empire Exhibition to travel the world, visiting diverse places of the

commonwealth, in order to gain support and interest in the forthcoming event in London. Agatha was able to travel along at reduced expense. The almost year-long adventure is told through some excerpts from Agatha's autobiography, most mostly through letters that she sent home to her mother and her toddler daughter. They are supplemented by many of the Christies' own photographs and memorabilia. They traveled by boat to South Africa, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Hawaii (where their entire focus was on surfing most every day they could), across Canada by rail, then by boat back to England. A forward by Agatha's grandson, who also has editing credit, adds to the context of the work.

The fascinating work demonstrates Agatha's great writing talent, too, in how she describes places (such as the vivid colors of New Zealand, or Lake Louise in Canada which she considered the most beautiful of places for many years) and the people she meets along the way. The most colorful character is the head of their exhibition group, Major Belcher, an absolute terror who could shift from jovial to having days-long temper tantrums over perceived slights. The book is, of course, largely a work of the 1920s, so expect a very elite perspective and some racist terms.

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