BOOK REVIEW

COME, TELL ME HOW YOU LIVE
an archaeological memoir

by Agatha Christie Mallowan

This book is a gem if you are interested in reading memoirs, history and/or reading about Agatha Christie's life in general.  Set in Syria during the early 1930s, it's an account of her life while she accompanied her husband, Max Mallowan, on his archaeological excavations.

A simpler time when archaeology wasn't weighed down with science and techniques.  All you had to do, it seems, is catch a steam train at Victoria Station in London, transfer to the Orient Express in Calais and continue your journey to Istanbul.  Once there, you were provided with digging permits by the French.

But a comfortable holiday it was not.  There were many discomforts in the primitive conditions of the day.  Nevertheless, Agatha Christie finds intense enjoyment in the wild Mesopotamian countryside and with its people.  Coping with fleas, spiders, mice, bats, car break downs, the list goes on, but it's told in the most amusing manner.

And not only did she take an active part in the practical aspects of the excavations such as photographing the finds (without the aid of a darkroom, no less) and cataloguing, Agatha Christie continued to write such books as Murder in Mesopotamia and Appointment with Death.

I believe this book gives a charming picture of Agatha Christie herself.  What a wonderful gal she must have been.