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

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, show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less

So not too much to say here. I really enjoyed reading this as we follow Christie as she travels around the world. We get to see her real life letters, photos, and other things that were kept that showcased her travels from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Honolulu, Canada, and then back to England. The main reason why I gave this just four stars though is that this just doesn't have a lot of great insight I think into Christie. We see letters she wrote to her mother for the most part. The letters I thought were charming and she definitely can write descriptions of people and places to the point you feel that you are there too. However, I didn't see a lot here that would give me a great insight into what drove her thinking when she show more wrote her books or what she really felt about things.

"The Grand Tour" follows Agatha Christie and her first husband, Archie, as they begin a 10 month trip from England and back again in 1922. Agatha Christie had given birth to her daughter Rosalind, but decided that she would accompany Archie who was a member of the British Empire Exhibition Mission party.

The Christies travel around the world and have to deal with some people who you wonder if they ended up in any of Christie's works in the future. For example, the general manager of the commission was Major Ernest Albert Belcher who was aggravating to the extreme. I think at one point in South Africa it's implied that if they eat anything that the "natives" provide, they were just asking for death.

Even though Agatha suffered from really bad seasickness and still didn't seem at home on a boat, she still traveled and met with people eagerly. I loved reading about how she and her husband learned to surf. I think that Moonlight was the first person to tell me that Christie learned to surf and it does boggle my mind that women at this time were doing this. It seems as if this would be an activity that most people would deem too manly.

The writing was quite clear and crisp. We get headers to let us know the date of letters and you get a foreword and afterword by Christie's grandson. I would love to read a better nonfiction book about Christie since the one I read last year by Laura Thompson was practically unreadable. This book did a good job of giving me a glimpse of her life. show less

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.