Come, Tell Me How You Live: Memories from archaeological expeditions in the mysterious Middle East - Softcover

Christie, Agatha

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000748724X ISBN 13: 9780007487240

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2015

Synopsis

Agatha Christie’s personal memoirs about her travels to Syria and Iraq in the 1930s with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan, where she worked on the digs and wrote some of her most evocative novels.

Think you know Agatha Christie? Think again!

To the world she was Agatha Christie, legendary author of bestselling whodunits. But in the 1930s she wore a different hat, travelling with her husband, renowned archaeologist Max Mallowan, as he investigated the buried ruins and ancient wonders of Syria and Iraq. When friends asked what this strange ‘other life’ was like, she decided to answer their questions by writing down her adventures in this eye-opening book.

Described by the author as a ‘meandering chronicle of life on an archaeological dig’, Come, Tell Me How You Live is Agatha Christie's very personal memoir of her time spent in this breathtaking corner of the globe, living among the working men in tents in the desert where recorded human history began. Acclaimed as ‘a pure pleasure to read’, it is an altogether remarkable and increasingly poignant narrative, a fascinating, vibrant and vivid portrait of everyday life in a world now long since vanished.

About this title

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

‘Agatha Christie has provided entertainment, suspense, and temporary relief from the anxieties and traumas of life both in peace and war for millions throughout the world.’
P. D. James

‘Christie’s witty account of her yearly expeditions in Syria in the 1930s ... is at once a captivating depiction of quotidian life at archaeological digs and a romantic portrait of adventurers and scholars in the interwar Middle East. Her relaxed narrative of the organization and effort in archaeological investigation and of the landscape and people in the region is engrossing―but what makes this book bewitching is the nostalgic glamour that infuses it.” The Atlantic (US)

From the Back Cover:

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' gives a charming picture of Agatha Christie herself, while also giving insight into some of her most popular novels, including 'Murder in Mesopotamia' and 'Appointment with Death'. It is, as Jacquetta Hawkes concludes in her introduction, “ a pure pleasure to read”.

“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 this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 000748724X
• ISBN 13: 9780007487240
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306