Abandoned by Booklikes

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.