A new tour that starts in London travels to three other continents in Agatha Christie's footsteps.
Young author Agatha Christie and her husband Archie set out on a 10-month journey across the globe in January 1922. Rosalind, her two-year-old daughter, stayed behind in England with her mother, who was 31 years old. Only two years previously, Christie's debut book, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," had been released. She would go by train through Australia's Dandenong Ranges, cruise the Zambezi River, and surf in Hawaii.
These experiences would influence her subsequent writings; Major Belcher, Archie's supervisor, who traveled with them, served as the primary inspiration for a character in her 1924 book "The Man in the Brown Suit," which was inspired by him. Foreign locations are more than just a backdrop in her books; they virtually take on a life of their own. Without the Orient Express, which Christie herself frequently rode, what would "Murder on the Orient Express" be?
Luxury travel company Black Tomato has released a series of itineraries replicating the author's journey to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her epic journey. Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and North America are the three "chapters" that each have a length of 10 to 15 nights and can be booked separately or as a quick 40-day trip.
I visited London last summer for Black Tomato's "prelude experience," which gives you an overview of Christie's universe before you embark on the chapter of your choice. At Brown's Hotel, one of Christie's favorite hangouts where she frequently went to write in the drawing room (some claim it's the location of her novel "At Bertram's Hotel"), I spent two nights in an opulent suite. I stood in front of the Notting Hill residence where Christie resided from 1934 until 1941 and attended an interactive performance of her play "A Witness to the Prosecution," in which the audience members serve as the jury.
Agatha Christie: Ha, Ha, Ha! It's the 100th anniversary of crime writer, Agatha Christie's, visit to Australia as part of her 1922 "world tour". One entry in her autobiography is priceless - "From Australia we went to Tasmania..." Ha, Ha, Ha! #agathachristie #Tasmania pic.twitter.com/LLheo1Z2PA
— John Moran (@prefpub1) August 26, 2022
However, having tea in Brown's drawing room with Christie's great-grandson, James Prichard, was the highlight of my trip. (Black Tomato arranges for Pritchard to meet when his schedule allows. Guests take tea with British historian Lucy Worsley if he isn't accessible.) We talked for hours over miniature sandwiches, sweets, and tea while nibbling on goodies like cherry pistachio pastry, smoked chicken and apricot sandwiches, and prawn cocktails. We also drank Ceylon and lavender-and-lemongrass tea.
Prichard informed me that my great-trips grandmothers significantly impacted her work. After her divorce in 1928, Christie went alone to Syria and Iraq, showing that she continued to travel after her great tour was over (where she met her second husband, Max Mallowan, and would later return to participate in his archaeological digs). Four years after she and Mallowan took a river excursion, "Death on the Nile" was published. The location of "A Caribbean Mystery" is claimed to have been inspired by the couple's 1958 trip to Barbados.
According to Prichard, when she was at the height of her celebrity, she was an elderly woman. We tend to forget how brave and daring she was as a young woman. She was traveling alone when she initially arrived in Baghdad. She boarded a train in London, traveled to Istanbul, and then arrived at her destination. I believe that tells it all.