Product Description

Agatha Christie's memoirs about her travels to Syria and Iraq in the 1930s with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan Agatha Christie was already well known as a crime writer when she accompanied her husband, Max Mallowan, to Syria and Iraq in the 1930s. She took enormous interest in all his excavations, and when friends asked what her strange life was like, she decided to answer their questions in this delightful book. First published in 1946, Come, Tell Me How You Live is now reissued in B format. It gives a charming picture of Agatha Christie herself, and is, as Jacquetta Hawkes concludes in her Introduction, 'a pure pleasure to read'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28148 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Review
'Perfectly delightful! colourful, lively and occasionally touching and thought-provoking' Charles Osborne, Books & Bookmen 'Good and enjoyable! she has a delightfully light touch' Marghanita Laski, Country Life

About the Author
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Customer Reviews

A fascinating glimpse into the real life of Agatha Christie.
I picked up this book following a visit to an exhibition in the British Museum about Christie's travels in the Middle East. My only contact with the writer before this was via the cosy middle-England dramatisations of her work that appear on television and I was rather more interested in the archaeology than Christie herself. This book blew away all my pre-conceptions. What I found in Christies descriptions of her journeys to modern-day Iraq - where she was accompanying her husband, the archeologist Max Mallowan, on his digs - was a woman, extremely happy in her surroundings who was fascinated by her husband's work and whose understanding of and concern for the local population was advanced even by today's standards. Her descriptions of the everyday struggle to make a life in an alien, and often harsh, environment are frank and frequently hilarious and her insights into the beliefs, particularly Islam, of the locals are couched without prejudice or condescension. I was half expecting the book to be full of the racist ravings of a typical English 'memsahib' but instead was delighted to discover in Agatha Christie, a humour and self-deprecation rare in female travellers of the time. The book contains a minimum of archeological information - just enough to set the scene - but even archaeology buffs would surely find the description of daily life on a pre-war dig of interest. The real value of this memoir, however, is in what it tells us about the character of Christie. I read a number of her novels after reading this book and found her, as an author of fiction, to be rather two-dimensional and unfulfilling. I've not changed my opinion about her novels but this doesn't detract from the fact that, after reading this little book, I really liked Agatha Christie as a person - which for some reason took me entirely by surprise. An absolute must for fans and non-fans alike.

A charming reflection of ex-pat life in Syria in the 1930s.
Using an unusual style for the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie records the daily life of a wife accompanying her archeologist husband while he is working in Syria. Intended as a description for her friends and family, Christie gives a light-hearted memoir of her unusual life in the desert, working daily with the local Arab people. She reveals a great deal of patience and tolerance for a life that must have had many difficulties. The account lacks vivid descriptions of the scenery and people, but does accurately portray the sense of fun of the Arab people. The language used is pure 30's, with references to 'gippy tummy' and the 'cruise department' in a London store, which is evocative of the era rather than irritating. Another surprise was that Christie had the ability to send herself up, particularly when it came to her need for 'OS' clothes.

It was not intended to be a great travel book, but it does reveal how the Middle East can get under the skin of a Westerner. This is a charming book which will strike a chord with anyone who has ever lived and worked in the Middle East.

Humour in the Desert!
Bear in mind this was originally written in the 1930s and published in 1946, so may feel dated to some but to me this is part of the charm. An interesting collection of characters between the pages, though not a great deal of archaeological detail, I enoyed reading this and finished it quickly. The individual characters are wonderful and the author is able to poke fun at herself at times as well. If you read Christie's biography, you may find there is more to read between the lines in her later relationship with her husband but would recommend this to anyone and I'm glad I bought it. Incidentally, Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody novels are very similar in feel - I wonder if she read this first . . . . . .