It was January 1922 when celebrated crime writer Agatha Christie, aged 32, set off on a 10-month world tour with her first husband, Archie, to promote the upcoming British Empire Exhibition. Leaving her two-year-old daughter with her sister, Agatha sailed in late January and only returned in December, but maintained a detailed weekly correspondence with her mother, detailing the exotic places and people she encountered while the mission traveled across the country. South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada.
The extended and unpublished letters are accompanied by hundreds of photos taken with her portable camera and some original letters, postcards, newspaper clippings and memorabilia Agatha collected during her trip. The whole thing was then fixed and published 90 years later in The Grand Tour.
The letters are filled with tales of car travel and surfing, seasickness and sunburn, glamor and misery. People and places come to life in the photos Agatha took with her portable camera, as well as in some of the original postcards and newspaper clippings she collected on her trip.
With the preface by Agatha Christie’s nephew, Mathew Prichard, and accompanied by memories of her own autobiography, this unique travelogue reveals a young and adventurous side of Agatha Christie. It demonstrates how her love for the exotic places that form the backdrop to her mysteries began with this revelatory experience of the world. She was a young writer who had just published her second novel (the first stop on the South African tour is clearly the inspiration for the book she wrote soon after, The man in the brown suit).
“Traveling around the world was one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me. It was so exciting that I couldn’t believe it was true. I kept repeating to myself: “I’m traveling the world” ».
The trip cemented Agatha’s passion for adventure, bringing her in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, Canada, and the continental United States. It was in South Africa that Agatha discovered his love of surfing and couldn’t wait to get back into the water when they reached Honolulu, where she became the first European woman to surf on her feet.
The people he met would form the basis of many plots, not least the strong figure of Major Belcher, their traveling companion, who provided the inspiration for a character in The man in the brown suit from 1924. The story centers on the heroine Anne Beddingfeld, in search of adventure:
Unfortunately Agatha’s marriage to Archie was not supposed to last and they divorced in 1928. Earlier that year Agatha had traveled to the Canary Islands with her secretary and daughter Rosalind, where she ended. The mystery of the blue trainset on the French Riviera.
100 years after the historic journey, Agatha Christie Limited has partnered with the luxury travel agency Black Tomato to organize a series of exclusive trips to celebrate the author’s journey. Is called “The Grand Adventure » and boasts four immersive and action-packed itineraries through London, Africa, Australia and North America. Her great-grandson Prichard commented: “The more I think of my great-grandmother, the more I realize how extraordinary she was. Her sense of adventure, her courage, was something we wanted to celebrate. “
Itineraries can be fully customized, but must-sees include a stay at Brown’s Hotel in London – where some may be lucky enough to have tea with Prichard himself – a trip to Pretoria from Cape Town on the Blue Train; visit the remote Dandenong Ranges in Australia; immerse yourself in the panorama of the Hokitika waterfalls, in New Zealand; and surfing on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii.
“I’d like someone to make this trip just thinking about what it was like for her, and maybe taking some books with them – her books, not other people’s books, of course. I think it would be really interesting to do it and try to imagine it through a 1920s lens ».
Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie became, and remains, the best-selling writer of all time. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as for the longest-running play in the world: The mousetrap. His books have sold over a billion copies in English and a billion in translation.
Source: Vanity Fair
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
