Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie * * * * *

I read Come, Tell Me How You Live (1946) as part of my 2025 Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, and it came as a genuine surprise. This is not a novel, but a memoir. In it, Agatha Christie writes about her life in the Middle East with her second husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan, during the 1930s.

You might expect a book focused on archaeology, but that is not really what this is. While archaeological work forms part of the background, the book feels more like a snapshot of a region and a time that no longer exists. Much of it takes place in Syria and surrounding areas between the two world wars. Christie does not analyse cultures in depth. Instead, she records moments, people, and stories, and in doing so captures a world that feels astonishingly distant now.

What struck me most was her attitude. This is a woman born in the nineteenth century, raised in England, suddenly dealing with dust, heat, illness, and a near-total lack of comfort. And yet she adapts far better than I expected. She complains occasionally, but always with humour. She laughs at discomfort and takes things in stride, even when that discomfort includes living with lice for months. I found myself quietly impressed, and even a little proud of her, because I am not sure I would have handled it half as well.

Her approach to the cultures around her was also a pleasant surprise. Yes, the book is inevitably shaped by a colonial perspective, but it never feels aggressively or carelessly racist. For its time, it is remarkably open and curious. Christie observes differences without assuming superiority, and she often highlights the humour and humanity of the people she meets. There are moments where Western medicine is presented as beneficial, but that feels grounded in reality rather than ideology.

Some of the stories are genuinely funny. There is a cat who earns its keep as a professional mouse hunter. There is a man who pretends to drown in a river, only for his entire family to arrive dramatically at the scene. And then there is the moment that completely stopped me. Christie describes meeting an elderly man who had lived through the First World War without realising it had happened. He remembered trains moving back and forth and general busyness, but the idea of a global war was news to him. Reading that from a twenty-first-century perspective, when we are constantly bombarded with news, was almost impossible to process. The fact that someone could miss a world war entirely felt baffling and humbling.

I listened to this book as an audiobook, but I also sought out the photographs included in the physical edition. Christie took them herself, and they are extraordinary. If you read this book, you really need to see the photos as well. They deepen the sense of place and make the stories feel even more tangible.

In the end, what stayed with me most was the sheer variety of cultures and ways of life Christie encountered. She does not attempt to explain them fully, but she records them with warmth and curiosity, and that in itself has value. This is not just a memoir of travel, but a quiet record of a world that has largely vanished.

I highly recommend Come, Tell Me How You Live. It is funny, thoughtful, occasionally startling, and deeply human. It reminded me that Agatha Christie’s greatest talent was not only her ability to construct mysteries, but her sharp and compassionate observation of people. That gift is what makes this book endure.