| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
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
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’.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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 . . . . . .
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Completely charming
This account of Agatha Christie's other life as an archaeologist's wife is compeltely charming and quite fascinating. Read more
Published 3 months ago by downkiddie
diary of past times
this small book brings the past to life. Agatha Christie accompanied her husband, a well known archaeologist, to syria. she describes her daily life. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Zumbach Beat
Beautiful memoir
I hadn't known before I read this book that Agatha Christie was married to a famous archaeologist. I'm unfamiliar with the subject, so the name Max Mallowan doesn't really mean... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. R. Bhaskar
Surprising and interesting
I can only agree with some of the previous reviews. Agatha Christie comes over as a genuinely interesting woman venturing in to desert areas with her husband and a few others and... Read more
Published 21 months ago by hmc
Delicious
Can't add much to previous reviews. For the lovers of travel literature (no only of archaeology) this book is a classic. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2009 by Fernando Sanchez Cuenca Al
One of the queen of Novels best.
To me the best of her work. She is and always will be the queen of novels.
Published on 23 Oct 2008 by Charles Noades
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Medical, Legal & Social Sciences > Anthropology & Sociology
- Books > Biography > Novelists, Poets & Playwrights > Novelists
- Books > Biography > Women
- Books > History > Archaeology
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > Middle East > Arabian Peninsula
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
