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18 reviews for:
The Grand Tour: Letters and Photographs from the British Empire Expedition 1922
Agatha Christie
3.78 AVERAGE
18 reviews for:
The Grand Tour: Letters and Photographs from the British Empire Expedition 1922
Agatha Christie
3.78 AVERAGE
Interesting description of commonwealth countries in 1922.
Agatha Christie... a huge part of my childhood, spending many days in St. Mary Mead with Miss Marple and many travels with the snobby, but brilliant Hercules Poirot. This book was exactly what it was advertised to be...a travel "journal" of AC's world adventure as part of an expedition to promote the British Empire Exhibition. I would have loved to learn more about one of my favorite authors...but it really was just about her adventure. She remains high on the list of people with whom I would love to share dinner and conversation!
What an enjoyable read and a slice of life, experienced by Agatha Christie in the 1920s.
Some other reviewers of this book comment that "it's boring because it's just letters that Christie wrote, mainly to her mother". Yup that's kind of what the title says it is, so expecting more than that would be unrealistic. I know I didn't get into deep philosophical discussions in letters to my mother.
And "Christie doesn't talk about the common people". Well, no. She is on an expenses paid trip - expenses paid by the British Government as part of a trade mission. This wasn't a trip organized by some not-for-profit group to install water systems in undeveloped areas. Of course she is meeting with and being entertained by semi-big-wigs in the places they visited.
And this is the 1920s. In her circle, there wasn't much awareness of a lot of things going on in the world - and the absence of discussion of those issues is interesting in itself.
Christie is writing letters and writes in her diary. So she describes daily life, mundane as that might be. And in doing so, we can share some of her experiences. Perhaps this book is more appealing to history buffs, like me.
I read the Kobo edition which is unfortunate because the pictures and copies of some pamphlet/printed material do not show up well. If you do choose to read the book, I would strongly suggest reading the hard copy of it.
Some other reviewers of this book comment that "it's boring because it's just letters that Christie wrote, mainly to her mother". Yup that's kind of what the title says it is, so expecting more than that would be unrealistic. I know I didn't get into deep philosophical discussions in letters to my mother.
And "Christie doesn't talk about the common people". Well, no. She is on an expenses paid trip - expenses paid by the British Government as part of a trade mission. This wasn't a trip organized by some not-for-profit group to install water systems in undeveloped areas. Of course she is meeting with and being entertained by semi-big-wigs in the places they visited.
And this is the 1920s. In her circle, there wasn't much awareness of a lot of things going on in the world - and the absence of discussion of those issues is interesting in itself.
Christie is writing letters and writes in her diary. So she describes daily life, mundane as that might be. And in doing so, we can share some of her experiences. Perhaps this book is more appealing to history buffs, like me.
I read the Kobo edition which is unfortunate because the pictures and copies of some pamphlet/printed material do not show up well. If you do choose to read the book, I would strongly suggest reading the hard copy of it.
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
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 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.
"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.
I love, love, love Agatha Christie but I was hoping for more from this book than I encountered. Her letter were delightful but a background of the whole trip would have been an interesting addition...
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
Great fun! A record in letters and a few diary entries of a round-the-world trip Agatha Christie took at the beginning of her writing career with her first husband. This trip was clearly the source of much of her novel [b:The Man in the Brown Suit|209194|The Man in the Brown Suit|Agatha Christie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390018729s/209194.jpg|995869], and like the novel, this is highly enjoyable!
informative
relaxing