This is a book to delight Agatha Christie fans. Other readers may enjoy it, but the real magic is getting a behind-the-scenes look at both her life and how she came to some of the settings we later enjoy in her mysteries. For example, she describes her delight in taking the Orient Express from Calais to Istanbul, how she always loved the look of it from afar and was so excited when she got to take it the very first time, and how the charm of it has never left her on subsequent trips. Well, Christie fans know what she did with this train!

Her particular style of writing, with its sharp observations and subtle humor, is just as charming in a non-fiction book as in her mysteries. I felt an overwhelming urge to find some archeological dig and offer to do all the cataloging and photography for them, just like Agatha Christie did on the 5 digs described in this book. ( )

lovely. Doesn't make any claims to anything in particular, succeeds nicely. Little snapshots - there are lots of segments that start 'today' which aren't differentiated as being separate days from the previous until one gets to a detail that makes it obvious. Doesn't really give any insight into the way that life was, except possibly (and this is a personal one) for the discussion of the dark-room set up. ( )

A nonfictional account of Christie's travels accompanying her second husband Max Mallowan on his archaeological digs in the middle east.

I found it to be a fascinating look at this part of the world before "development" and before Europeans had dug up every last inch of ancient cities. BUT I did find it became a little repetitive about two-thirds of the way through. ( )

Come, Tell Me How You Live (1946) by Agatha Christie Mallowan. Agatha Christie’s novels feature many deaths and ingenious puzzles, but his one has the bodies of tens of thousands scattered about the place and she and her husband have set out to dig up the truth about some of them.
Unlike her normal writing, this is a nonfiction retelling of her experiences on an archaeological dig in Syria in the late 1930’s. She tells of shopping in London for the proper clothing, setting out on the Orient Express for the Middle East, and the preparations for taking on the immense, several year long, expedition . Her husband, Max Mallowan, was a renowned archeologist and this is a retelling of the hardships and misery, and the hilarity found on the way. They and their crew seek out promising “Tells”, mounds on the landscape that cover ancient civilizations. And Roman ruins just won’t do, they seek the ancients of the area. There is no “Indiana Jones” to be found here, just an adventure that brings out an even better writer in Ms. Christie.
When I read about her having a fever of 102 degrees I immediately worried that she had caught the Covid-19, but I supposed local events have seeped into everything I see and hear.
This is a thrilling answer to all the questions asked her about the adventure (hence the title question) told in a surprising humorous and light-hearted manner. A very good read indeed. ( )

This is a fun read. Started before WW2 as a means of answering her friends when they asked how she lived when on a dig in the dessert this was finished about 10 years later and is a slightly nostalgic look back at a time and place that was no more. I'm not sure very many of Christie's books give away what a fun character she must have been. She tells all of their adventures, trials and tribulations with a self deprecating air, half the time the joke is on her. The tale of finding a hat was delightful, how many times have we known what we want yet been completely unable to find it. I'm with her on the attraction of one more pair of shoes, despite the doubt of the customs agent! She describes the people she meets with a vaguely paternalistic air, but it isn't too grating on the ear. It has an interested, benevolent air rather than a belittling one. The places she visits are familiar now for very different reasons, they are now no longer recognisable as the busy towns she passes through.
There's little in detail about archeology in here, this is the archeologist's wife describing day to day life and the things that crop up to surprise them. Which she does with great charm and humour. ( )