The Grand Tour by Agatha Christie

In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a 10-month voyage around the British Empire with her husband as part of a trade mission to promote the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition. Leaving her two-year-old daughter behind with her sister, Agatha set sail at the end of January and did not return until December, but she kept up a detailed weekly correspondence with her mother, describing in detail the exotic places and people she encountered.

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With a ten-month itinerary that would take her across South Africa, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada, The Grand Tour is a unique record of Agatha Christie's round-the-world journey of 1922, told through her extensive and lively letters home to her mother.

The letters are full of tales of motor trips and surf boarding, seasickness and sunburn, glamour and misery. The people and places come to life in the photos Agatha took on her portable camera, as well as some of the original postcards and newspaper cuttings she collected on her trip.

Introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, and accompanied by reminiscences from her own Autobiography, this unique travelogue reveals a young adventurous side to Agatha Christie, one that would ultimately influence the exotic stories that made her a household name.