The 8:55 to Baghdad

by Andrew Eames

The author travels from London to Baghdad, a journey made by Agatha Christie in 1928. It is a compelling read, merging literary biography with a personal travel adventure, and ancient history with contemporary events.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Middle East, History, Biography, Agatha Christie, Memoir

387 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2005

About the author

Andrew Eames is a travel writer with his articles appearing in the Daily Telegraph and The Times.

He is an authority on Istanbul and the Nile.

He lives in London with his family.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC radio 4 Extra:
"Her adventure had been taken at a moment of major personal change; mine was beginning at a moment that could change the world".

In 1928, crime writer Agatha Christie made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go on holiday, alone, to Iraq. Then in her late thirties she was already a popular and successful novelist, but her 14 year marriage to Archie Christie had recently ended and her comfortable life at Sunningdale had become oppressive.

In the first of five readings from his book, Andrew Eames describes how 75 years later on, on the eve of the second Gulf War, he set out to trace Agatha's journey and explore her reasons for making it.

Episode 2:
Retracing the crime writer's Middle Eastern journey of 1928, Andrew Eames recalls taking the Orient Express train to Istanbul.

Episode 3:
Retracing the English crime writer's 1928 journey to Iraq, Andrew Eames recalls stopping off for a steam bath in Damascus.

Episode 4:
Retracing the English crime writer's 1928 journey, Andrew Eames's coach party arrives in Baghdad on the eve of war, but the welcome from the locals is friendly.

Episode 5;
Retracing the English crime writer's 1928 journey, Andrew Eames visits the ancient city of Ur, where Agatha met her future husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.
Producer: David Jackson Young
First broadcast on BBC Radio in 2004.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0076m5j

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 2.5* for me. The first half was very slow, but from Syria onwards it held a bit more interest. I had no real knowledge of (or interest in) Agatha Christie, so that probably didn't help hold my interest.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is some of the best travel writing that I have ever read. This book is not only informative but also amusing and exciting.

In 1928, the young author Agatha Christie was divorced by her first husband Archie Christie. Soon after this, she embarked on a trip to the Middle East, travelling mainly by train. Travelling via the Balkans and Turkey, she reached what is now Syria, and then went on to what is now Iraq. There, she met up with archaeologists working on the sites of ancient cities such as Nimrud and Ur. It was whilst visiting these sites that she met and fell in love with an archaeologist Max Mallowan, who was to become her second husband.

In this book, Andrew Eames sets out by the 8.55 train from Sunningdale in South-East England, where Agatha used to live with her first husband, in order to follow Agatha's train journey to Iraq. As he describes his fascinating journey, he gradually reveals what he has learnt of the great crime writer's life and how it meshed with the places through which he travelled. Along the way, he meets a range of fascinating people and visits many interesting places, some of which have connections with Agatha Christie. He describes all of these experiences sympathetically and vividly. Nowhere in his beautiful book is he condescending or humorous at the expense of his subjects, as some travel writers are prone to be.

I was particularly interested in his observations and views of the republics that were the legacy of the former Yugoslavia. They chimed well with what I have said in my book "SCRABBLE WITH SLIVOVITZ -Once upon a time in Yugoslavia", which I published just before discovering the "8.55 to Baghdad".

Eames's description of Iraq, which he visited near the end of his trip and during the last years of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, also interested me. The country, isolated from the outside world by international sanctions and under the threat of imminent attack by NATO, appeared to be totally bleak in many respects. Yet, it differed in one respect from the Albania that I visited in 1984 and described in my book "ALBANIA ON MY MIND" , during the period between the 1950s and 1991 when it had isolated itself from the outside world. Eames, who had to visit Iraq under the same restrictive conditions as I experienced in Albania in 1984, was able to speak, admittedly not without difficulty, to a number of 'ordinary' Iraqis. When I visited Albania, this was made completely impossible; ordinary Albanian citizens were obviously and determinedly kept away from us foreigners by an army of plain-clothed security agents.

Eame's journey that begins in Sunningdale ends in Ur, close to the Kuwaiti border with Iraq. It was on the site of that ancient cradle of civilisation that Max and his future wife Agatha first met. By that stage, she was already keen on archaeology, an aspect of life that Eames discusses in some detail. In addition to assisting with digs, she also wrote her books under the desert sun. A few of them apart from "Murder on the Orient Express" derive obvious inspiration from her frequent visits to the Middle East.

I strongly recommend this extraordinarily gripping, highly evocative travel book to any one with even the slightest interest in history or travel or archaelogy or even Agatha Christie.

[Vintagebarrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a great premise, but, unfortunately, poorly executed. The author is not an Agatha Christie fan, knew virtually nothing of her fascinating life before embarking on his journey and adds almost nothing to her biography through his excursion.

His references to Christie's famous disappearance are needlessly speculative with no purpose or affection for the woman.

He has neither enthusiasm or curiosity for his subject, which makes this a boring read. Even as a train travel book, there is no meat, just the barest history of the Orient Express, which would have been such an interesting and relevant subject to research more.

Most of the author's effort is spent observing fellow travelers, an amazingly uninteresting lot overall, and providing political history for the countries his train route travels through. Here we have a chance to at least for a good travel yarn, but the writing is inexplicably dull and strained.

I really, really wanted to like this book, but the endless strings of clunky, laborious metaphors are just too painful. For example, "Underneath it was a paddlesteamer so dilapidated that Conrad would even have refused to take it up the Congo."

Such a random, ill-fitting sentence that does nothing to illuminate the view of Belgrade (or, for that matter, Conrad).

As soon as I got to the part about the married author contemplating sleeping with a woman he meets on his travels, I lost my patience.

Skip this book.

[Bettie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me at this time thank you very much.

[Karol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating journey, mostly by train, into the Middle East. The author's objective was to see some of the places where Agatha Christie had lived or vacationed in during her 2nd marriage. Of course, things have changed so much that there isn't much left of what she enjoyed. But the traces that the author found compared to how things are now was most interesting.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should have been really terrific, and it kind of was. The author is clearly a man deeply in love with words, his own words to be specific, and it seemed that he took great pains to construct elaborate sentences that would evoke a strong image, thought or emotion in the mind of the reader.

And sometimes that happened. The first chapter got me quite excited, as I thought "now here's an author with a real way with words", but as I read on, I found that love of words over used or used in the pursuit of unworthy subject matter.

This book is part travelogue, part history lesson (including some fairly dull political history - did we really need all those pages on Yugoslavia and the Balkans?), and part Agatha Christie style descripto (a word I just made up to describe the hodge podge of words the author uses, in a Christie-esque style, to describe various parts of his journey including his fellow travellers).

The likeability of the author for a travelogue is really important. And in this case, I found myself vascillating between thinking he was quite a nice, even terrific, bloke, then thinking he wasn't quite such a nice guy.

I can't be the only reader who found his descriptions of flirting outrageously and seriously with Jasna, the poetry writing Belgradian, slightly out of place or off centre in some way - it was just too revealing and awkward. Initially, I put this off-ness down to the English style of courtship, then a new light was shone on this awkward sequence when later in the book he admits to a wife and small children. Er, not cool dude.

The author has a talent and skill with words, but poor judgement. That's how I would sum up this book. His judgement is off in quite a few ways. Most obviously, in not only his pursuit of (or receptiveness to the pursuit of) the lovely if damaged sounding Jasna, whilst being married with children, but in his RELAYING of that encounter to us. Why would someone do that?

But perhaps just as bad, his judgement is off in the parts of the story he chooses to focus on - his travel companions, the history (geopolitical) of each country he travelled through, various experiences he had.

For example we hear all about his bus companions through the Iraq tour. Lordy me, did we need to hear a description of each and every one of them, and then be regaled with their petty squabbles on the 2 weeks they were forced to be together?

And he describes in lurid detail an experience he has walking through a Baghdad street where a young man approaches him and takes him to meet a "friend I have in fashion", down a meandering set of increasingly unrecognisable streets, until the author is so uncomfortable he virtually runs away. This just wasn't that interesting a story, frankly.

I wanted to love this book, and to zoom through it because it was such a great read. I found myself one Sunday forcing myself to finish it, so I could move onto something else. But - I did want to finish it.

All that said, I still give it a 4 because the author has real writing talent, and a real way with words. If only he would learn to use them better.

[Gerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part travelogue, part history, part biography, this book takes the reader on the trail of Agatha Christie travelling from London to Iraq, a journey more difficult today than it had been in Agatha's time.

I am not a particular fan of the Balkans, Balkan politics or Iraq history but the interplay between the journey and how Christie accomplished it some 70 years ago maintains the interest with the references back to Christie's journey being the best part of the book.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, published in 2004 about the author's 2002 exploits, is in itself as much an historical artifact as are the sites and routes with which the author concerns himself. Eames travels the path, as much as he can, of Agatha Christie and her 1920s route from London to Baghdad, and on to Ur. He rides what is left of the Orient Express, explores abandoned train stations in the Balkans, and endures a small group bus trip through the Mesopotamian desert. His journey is framed by Christie and her work as an author and an archaeologist. He relies as well on his contemporary Thomas Cook guide to give him perspective of the British outlook of the time.

Eames is a curious traveller rather than an imposing "tourist". He immerses himself with interest and compassion into the authenticity of his destinations and the people within them. He's not unwilling to strike up a conversation with a local, divert off his planned path, and take a moderate risk. Many locales he visits have since been themselves drastically changed by politics and war. The last chapters on Syria and Iraq are poignant in this light. His contemplations on what has changed since Christie's time are now themselves worthy of contemporary reflection.

I would bundle this book with Fariba Hachtroudi's small but powerful book "The Man Who Snapped His Fingers", a ripping condemnation of the negative results of the unleashed power of a despot. Michael Portillo's video series "Great Indian Railway Journeys", in which he relies on a 1913 Bradshaw's travel guide of India to compare with current life, gives on the same feel as Eames' work.

Only one wish - that Eames had included a bibliography of his readings and the books he mentions within his texts.

[Vicky Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting mix of biography, travelogue, archeology, history, and sociological study interspersed along the route of the Orient Express; The 8:55 to Baghdad is well worth the read. Eames admittedly knew little about Mrs. Christie before setting off on his journey to follow her path. By the time we reached Baghdad, I felt I had learned an immense amount about the geography of much of the Balkan region.

Of course, the information about Agatha Christie's life was most interesting. I read this in Kindle whisper-sync with the Audible well narrated by the author in an English accent. This was my read for Slovenia in my Around the World in 80 Books challenge, and part of my collection of Train journeys. My next stop will be Croatia.

[H. Daley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable and informative, a very readable style.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, multi-level work - biography, history, travelogue, mystery. Leaving from London on the 8:55 to Baghdad, Andrew Eames follows the trail of Agatha Christie, when she mysteriously disappeared from her English life in 1929.

Eames' journey starts in contemporary London: posh, busy, modern. The farther he travels by train from the centers of Western culture - England, France, Switzerland - into the mysteries of Eastern Europe - Trieste, Zagreb, Sofia - the more dilapidated and curious the journey becomes. Trieste gives a hint of what's to come, it being a city from another era, with a complicated political past, and so does Eames' treatment of Serbia and Croatia. Later, I was surprised that Eames' does not mention, either historically or in the narrative, Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman empire, which in 1929, would have loomed large in recent memory.

The journey becomes completely foreign by Istanbul as Eames searches for traces of Christie's presence in Damascus, Aleppo, Bagdad and Ur. Eames has a powerful ability to capture the strange essence of these places, with sights and sounds and structures and people so present in the writing. There are odd bits of humor too, like his persistent inquiries in English for all things Christie - hotel rooms she stayed in, train stations she traveled through, people that might have some family history of meeting her, seeking her books in Middle Eastern bookstores.

Perhaps the most amazing hourglass evolution of the work, is that final third of the trip, from Aleppo to Ur, through Syria and to Iraq, Eames following Christie's 1929 route in 2002. He emerges from the most ancient of civilizations into the most contemporary of political dangers as the war in Iraq escalates. In once scene towards the end of the work, Eames is in Ur, marveling at the 6,000 year old Ziggurat, the dig where Christie and her husband Max worked, and finds himself in the middle of a NATO target zone, in the middle of a bombing attack.

The 8:55 to Baghdad is a must read for Christie fans, and highly satisfying for lovers of many genres. Enjoy your travels!

--Ashland Mystery

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you know much about my reading habits, you know I like Agatha Christie novels. A lot. So this book, in which the author recreates a journey Agatha Christie took many times over her lifetime, to Baghdad, intrigued me. Agatha was going to accompany her husband on archaeological digs. Eames is going to trace that journey, but also to see what it's like in Iraq on the eve of war. This is in 2002, right before the U.S. invasion/liberation/whathaveyou.

The book took FOREVER to read. It just wasn't a page turner. I've been trying to finish it since before I left for England in March. But the language is often beautiful and the stories he tells along the way are compelling. Eames has a great eye and attention to detail. In fact, it was the journey of today that I found much more interesting than the bits of Christie's biography he gave as he explained the ways his journey mirrored hers.

He started on the Orient Express, which is now more of an opulent land cruise for wealthy tourists, and gradually took trains and buses of less and less comfort and...joie de vivre until he was on board a covert busload of risk-taking tourists crossing the border into Iraq.

[Tim Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting journey, though lightweight in style

The author's supposed journey from the UK to the Middle East has a fairly tenuous connection to Agatha Christie, often visiting places she only passed through by train. And the author's flippant writing style can be wearing.

Having said that, he visits some genuinely interesting places connected with railway history, as well as sites of significant archaeological discoveries in Iraq. And the timing on the brink of the Gulf War of 2003 gives it a precise sense of time and place.

[Simon McCrum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must confess that I found this book a little disappointing, the author’s habit of using 10 words when five would do was a bit irritating and frankly I didn’t find him a companionable travel partner. I thought the premise of the book was very interesting and as a journey it was certainly quite an exciting one, but overall I didn’t find the book hugely enjoyable.

[R Badiani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, it’s the next best thing to travelling given the current worldwide pandemic. Beautifully written with touches of humour even in quite fraught situations. I learnt so much about the countries that AE travelled through on his way to Baghdad. I got to know more about Agatha Christie and her happier ‘second’ Life.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eames wasn’t an Agatha Christie fan when he started out on the Orient Express, but after learning about her life he grew curious enough to retrace her travels through the Balkans and the Middle East. He did a conscientious job of this, staying in the same hotels where possible, asking companies for hotel ledgers and passenger lists that no longer exist, reading key novels that were set on locations along the railway, and speaking with people who remembered her. Like Christie, Eames spent most of his time observing people and then writing about it. He entertained himself by speculating which passengers could have covert reasons for visiting Iraq during the tense months when America was building up to the invasion, and even which ones might be mysteriously murdered during the trip. No such murders eventuated, despite provocation by the kind of tourists you wish the authorities had deported.

Though his travel started in England, most of the book covers Trieste and points east, including Serbia, which only a few years before had been bombed by NATO to stop crimes against humanity that Belgradians were barely aware of. The Serbs responded afterward by engaging in promiscuous sex, the men treating Serbian women almost as badly as they had the Croats and Bosnians. A Serb badgers Eames to take advantage of his woman guide, and he almost does despite the fact (as we learn later) that he has a wife and family back in England. As his work frequently took him away from home, one wonders whether he did take advantage of women on other occasions, but the insight into the postwar Serbian mentality is far more disturbing than anything Eames did.

Eames likes most of the Turks, Syrians, and Iraqis who he meets on his travels, some of them very much. He was at pains to talk with Iraqis despite officially being on a guided tour of Mesopotamian archaeology without contact with the locals. It is only three or four months before the Gulf War would impoverish Iraq and kill many of its citizens, a situation that they were aware of and seemed resigned to, though they surely had no concept of its scope. But there was no such foreboding in Syria when Eames visited Aleppo, whose population of more than four million would endure evacuation and a fierce battle lasting four years. Eames also visited Palmyra, whose magnificent ruins were blasted by ISIS. At Ur, the terminus of the archaeological tour and one of the oldest cities in the world, Eames’ reverie was interrupted by an air-raid siren and a pair of explosions. The war had not yet begun, but it was time to leave.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains multitudes and some portions I loved and some not so much.
The author was in Syria and decided to follow Agatha Christie's Orient Express journey.
I love Agatha Christie books and have even read her memoir of archaeological digs and her autobiography, so I was familiar with the overview. I also love travel, especially travel in the Europe and the Middle East.
He combines where he is on the journey with history of the area as well and Christie's history and what it was like when she was there. I have never learned much about the Balkans and while the portion about the division of the area was fascinating the area seemed really sad to me and it drug on. Though interestingly that area of the world is hot for tourism and I bet he won't have guessed that. It was also very sad to read the portions on Syria since the civil war has now destroyed so much. And he traveled four months before the US invaded Iraq but wrote it after so he adds that in.
His own journey seemed a little stretched. And portions I really didn't expect so much frankness with how women and viewed and treated (more in the Balkan than the Middle East but a little there too). The author went on some weird dates and then in the next country reveals wife and kids?!?!
This journey was taken in 2002 (when I went to the ME myself) so it was over 20 years ago and just as Christie's times in the 1920s and 50s and 60s, I had to remind myself that of course things have changed and some for the better and a lot not so much.
I bought this book at HPB thinking I might need something to read on my trip to Jordan but I didn't end up taking it.

[Laronda Blessing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting read. I learned a lot about the author/traveler, a bit about Agatha Christie's life, and quite a bit about the history of the Orient Express, the Balkans, and Iraq. At times, the narrative gets a bit bumpy (other reviewers have alluded to clunky metaphors and the author's sometimes distracting love of his own writing, and I'd agree with those assessments to some extent). Overall, however, it was interesting and a unique book in that the past was intertwined with modern day travel along the route of the Orient Express. I enjoyed it as an Agatha Christie fan and as a history buff, but I'd imagine the more history-textbook-like parts of the book might not work as well for everyone--you've got to want to dive into a wealth of historical info after a light section covering the author's travels and observations on his fellow travelers.

A bit of a mixed bag, but I liked it.

[Nate Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the time, we need a reason to travel, and - when you're submitting a book proposal - you need a very good reason to travel. This author found it in Agatha Christie's life: attempting to replicate the rail journeys made by Dame Agatha to the archaeological sites where she met her second husband (the good husband), Max Mallowan, and worked with him excavating ancient artifacts for several years while also pursuing her career as novelist. A very Paul Theroux-style narrative. Travel as more of an ordeal. But Eames managed to get in, and out, of Iraq just before the "shock and awe" Oil Grab of 2003. So here you have one last look at Baghdad just before this city - which has known so much violence - got turned upside down again.

[Michael Alan Grapin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author, an avid fan of Agatha Christie, undertakes to mirror her journey that inspired Murder on the Orient Express, not as easy a task as it was in her day. His descriptions of the mode of transportation, the locations and even the people he met along the way were at times captivating and at other times as dry as a textbook. Some of what he wrote of Agatha Christie's life was interesting, some of his descriptions of biblical history were worth the read, but I did find his subtle disdain for Americans and Israelis a little off putting even as his apparent admiration of the people he met in Iraq was somewhat charming. I almost gave up on the book several times but managed to plod my way through to the very end.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swinging between a 3 and a 4/5 for me so im plumping for generosity.
When I found this book in the free library I knew it would be interesting, given my recent delve into some of the works of Agatha Christie. But I really appreciated the depth of research into the journey she took by train to Baghdad. The world and times have changed incredibly since she made that journey, and even more so since this book was published in the early 2000s.
It feels like an almost impossible mission to complete just now. Although, travel through the Balkans at least would have improved.
I found the beginning rather slow, but, as the book progressed I found myself getting increasingly drawn into the landscape and people's.
Interesting from a travel and Agatha Christie and train perspective for me!

[Julia]

An odd book. Travel author follows Agatha Christie's 1928 trip from London to Baghdad by train, including a trip on the current iteration of the Orient Express. Agatha Christie went to see the archaeology site at Ur and met her second husband Max Mallowan. This provides the initial inspiration for the trip, and the book is peppered with stories about Agatha's travels and biography. But the bulk of the book is more current events travel. The Balkans section includes the history of Yugoslavia and its breakdown. The journey is more harrowing after he joins a tour group for the last chunk of his journey, mostly because of the timing. This is post 9/11 when Bush was on the verge of invading Iraq, making travel more difficult.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was the subtitle of this book that grabbed my attention ... "From London to Iraq on the Trail of Agatha Christie." This book was at times fascinating, but at other points pure drudgery to get through. I almost abandoned the book somewhere short of the middle of it when the author went on at length about the Serbo-Croatia conflict as he traveled through that part of Eastern Europe. But, determined to keep reading, I got through that and enjoyed the descriptive passages of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. So much history, both ancient and modern, has occurred in these lands. Reading about the archeological digs was interesting. Glad I read this.

[Hana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really didn't enjoy this. It was like he couldn't find enough information about Agatha's journey therefore he filled the book up with some semi interesting but mainly tediously boring facts, interactions, and stories. It was a real drag to get to the end of this book and I'm really not sure that I should've stuck it out. Bit of a waste of my time really. Seeing as I usually read books this length in about four or five days, the fact that this took me over two months to read should show just how much of a struggle it was.

[Stuart Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread this and moved it from 4 stars to 3.5. With the benefit of hindsight it has some interesting observations on the geopolitical situation in the region, and it’s not the sort of journey anyone will be doing for the foreseeable future. However the whole pursuit of Agatha Christie was a bit forced - an idea to hang a book contract on, rather than a real desire to get an insight into her life, and so it ultimately it ends up as a bit of a middling book, with flashes of what it could have been.

[Anne Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing style made this book really hard to read for me. If a sentence goes by without a simile or a metaphor being used its a miracle. I got so bogged down with the writing that the story and the history of the Orient Express became lost for me. Can't count how many times I almost gave up on this book. Not the book I'd recommend for people looking to read about the Orient Express or Agatha Christie.

[Agnesxnitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have got this book but found it pretty heavy going, I got lost in all the political machinations of each country the author travelled through.
Thankfully, I found an audiobook copy and this was much more enjoyable - I was able to pootle about cleaning or doing some craftwork whilst listening and this was a much better experience for me.
I listed to this some years ago, it was a Christmas present from my parents.

[Clair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the descriptions of the countries he traveled through and it’s kicked off a new interest in Mesopotamia.
I do think he doesn’t seem particularly warm as a person and he’s quite rude about the majority of his fellow travelers, as this is one aspect of travel I really enjoy, This left me a little cold.

[RICHARD CLARK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Needs an editor who can spell

A good travel book, artfully written, thoroughly descriptive, and unflinching in its descriptions of present-day conditions of “exotic” destinations. I’m quite sure the original text did not have the numerous misspellings in this electronic edition which interrupted a good story.