The Grand Tour is basically Agatha Christie's account of an 11-month vacation she took with then-husband Archie. They visited South Africa, Australian, New Zealand, Honolulu and Canada. Most of the book are her letters to family, with the preface and epilogue written by her grandson.
The book is supposed to be letters + pictures, but for some reason, most of the pictures wouldn't load on my iPad. So I really can't comment on that.
The letters, though, reminded me of blogs! She basically wrote a summary of all that was noteworthy (often by day - except in Hawaii where their days were alike, and perhaps a few other places). So it's all about where she meant and who she met rather than a memoir of what she learnt/experienced during the journey.
And you really shouldn't expect character portraits either. The only major 'character' is Belcher, a sometimes charming, often pompous and annoying man who was leading the group. Apparently he was also one of the few that made it into her novels as a character too!
I wouldn't go into this book expecting an overarching narrative, or something to explain the reasons (or hint at reasons) why some time after this trip, Agatha Christie would disappear for some time. Instead, enjoy the record of her journey, and if you've been to any of the same places, see how it's changed since she visited.
I haven't read too much on Agatha Christie's life, admittedly, but I love her books. I want to do a reread of many of them. It'll be like reading them again for the first time, since it was over 20 years ago when I last read them. This sounds like it would be a good one, as you said, as a companion to the autobiography.
ReplyDeleteI would love to do a reread! I wonder if there's a Readalong event or something like that...
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