Andrew Eames

A dual literary biography and travelogue follows the author's recreation of Agatha Christie's 1928 train ride on the Orient Express, a journey during which he encountered modern dangers and colorful fellow travelers.

From London to Iraq on the Trail of Agatha Christie and the Orient Express

The 8:55 to Baghdad

“A winning blend of travelogue and literary biography” by a British journalist who travels the journey Agatha Christie once did from London to Iraq. (Entertainment Weekly) With her marriage to her first husband over, Agatha Christie decided to take a much needed holiday; the Caribbean had been her intended destination, but a conversation at a dinner party with a couple who had just returned from Iraq changed her mind. Five days later she was off on a completely different trajectory. Merging literary biography with travel adventure, and ancient history with contemporary world events, Andrew Eames tells a riveting tale and reveals fascinating and little-known details of this exotic chapter in the life of Agatha Christie. His own trip from London to Baghdad--a journey much more difficult to make in 2002 with the political unrest in the Middle East and the war in Iraq, than it was in 1928--becomes intertwined with Agatha's, and the people he meets could have stepped out of a mystery novel. Fans of Agatha Christie will delight in Eames' description of the places and events that appeared in and influenced her fiction--and armchair travelers will thrill in the exotica of the journey itself. “Agatha Christie fans, as well as connoisseurs of fine travel writing, will relish British journalist Eames's gripping, humorous and eye-opening account of his train and bus trip across Europe and the Middle East on the eve of the second Gulf War.” Publisher’s Weekly Second;Iraq;Gulf;war;Kurds;Armenians;Palestinians;English;travel;writer;writing;1928;bestselling;mystery;author;English;crime;writer;Europe;passenger;train;memoir;literary;biography;adventure;travel;history;autobiography;holiday;Middle;East;Damascus;Ur;Syria;archaeology TRV026090 TRAVEL / Special Interest / Literary BIO007000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures BIO026000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs TRV015000 TRAVEL / Middle East / General 9781468306415 Candlemoth Ellory, R.J.

From London to Iraq on the Trail of Agatha Christie

The 8.55 to Baghdad

Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, the Eastern Canaries

A journey along the Danube to the heart of the Europe nobody knows, exploring how much we really know about the "New Europe." The Danube River runs like an artery from the heart of Europe in the Black Forest to Europe's furthest flung fringes, where it joins the Black Sea in the Danube Delta in Romania. A journey along its length takes in all of European history, and encompasses what today can be called the New Europe. Andrew Eames here makes a fascinating journey by bicycle, boat and on foot, travelling through areas of intensive heavy industry as well as through rural areas where wolves still roam, seeking answers to some of the most complex problems facing Europeans today. Passing through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and the Ukraine, as well as Count Dracula's home, Transylvania, he doesn't shrink from analyzing the difficult issues of race and cultural identity he may encounter along the way.

Blue River, Black Sea

Hans Hoefer

Includes INSIGHTFUL ESSAYS ON ARTS AND HISTORY DETAILED ACCOUNTS ON SPAIN'S MAJOR CITIES AND REGIONS, MAPS AND PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION.

Spain

Travel journalist Andrew Eames was in the ancient Syrian city of Aleppo when he met an elderly lady who had known Agatha Christie. Fascinated by the exotic history of this quintessentially English crime writer, he decided to retrace the trip from London to Baghdad which she made in 1928 - a journey which was to change Agatha Christie completely and led to her other life as the wife of an archaeologist in the deserts of Syria and Iraq. Travelling from London to Baghdad by train on the eve of the Iraq war, through the troubled areas of the Balkans and the Middle East, Eames found stark contrasts to the old Orient Express route as well as some unexpected connections with the past.

Andrew Eames

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