Agatha Christie in Iraq

"How much I have loved that part of the world": an exhibition on Dame Agatha Christie's life in the Middle East reveals an intriguing involvement, writes David Tresilian from London
Now in its final week at the British Museum in London, Agatha Christie and Archaeology, an exhibition of the popular English author's travels in Iraq, Syria and Egypt between 1930 and 1960, as well as illuminating English upper middle- class life in the Middle East between the two world wars, casts an intriguing sidelight on the life of Christie herself. For, while many will have known of Christie's interest in Ancient Egypt, not least from the successful 1978 film adaptation of her novel Death on the Nile, few, perhaps, will have appreciated the true extent of Christie's involvement in the Middle East, which lasted for well over 30 years.
Married to the English archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, first director of the British School in Iraq and a trustee of the British Museum, Christie spent several seasons cataloguing archaeological finds from Mallowan's excavations first in Iraq and later at Tell Brak in Syria, recording the work on early 16mm film. When not working on site, Christie typed her novels, which are now translated into more languages and in more editions than Shakespeare, in a specially constructed room in the dig-house, raising the fascinating possibility that Miss Marple, amateur sleuth of the English village of St Mary Mead, was created not far from Baghdad. Hercule Poirot, the deracinated Belgian detective of so many of Christie's "international" novels, including Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, also had an oriental origin, with Christie later writing of Iraq in her autobiography, "how much I have loved that part of the world..."
The exhibition, first seen last year at the Ruhrlandmuseum in Essen, Germany, begins with the circumstances of Christie's first visit to Iraq in 1928. A British mandate territory at the time, though soon to become independent, the country was within convenient reach of well-heeled travellers, who would take the luxurious Orient Express from London to Istanbul, changing trains there to the Taurus Express, which would take them on to Baghdad.
This Christie did both in 1928 and in 1930, having already begun to publish the novels that were to make her famous, in order to inspect the excavations that the British archaeologist Leonard Woolley was undertaking at the ancient site of Ur. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon had presented the Tutankhamun finds to the world in a blaze of publicity only a few years earlier, and Ur seemed to offer similar possibilities.
Now in its final week at the British Museum in London, Agatha Christie and Archaeology, an exhibition of the popular English author's travels in Iraq, Syria and Egypt between 1930 and 1960, as well as illuminating English upper middle- class life in the Middle East between the two world wars, casts an intriguing sidelight on the life of Christie herself. For, while many will have known of Christie's interest in Ancient Egypt, not least from the successful 1978 film adaptation of her novel Death on the Nile, few, perhaps, will have appreciated the true extent of Christie's involvement in the Middle East, which lasted for well over 30 years.
Married to the English archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, first director of the British School in Iraq and a trustee of the British Museum, Christie spent several seasons cataloguing archaeological finds from Mallowan's excavations first in Iraq and later at Tell Brak in Syria, recording the work on early 16mm film. When not working on site, Christie typed her novels, which are now translated into more languages and in more editions than Shakespeare, in a specially constructed room in the dig-house, raising the fascinating possibility that Miss Marple, amateur sleuth of the English village of St Mary Mead, was created not far from Baghdad. Hercule Poirot, the deracinated Belgian detective of so many of Christie's "international" novels, including Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, also had an oriental origin, with Christie later writing of Iraq in her autobiography, "how much I have loved that part of the world..."
The exhibition, first seen last year at the Ruhrlandmuseum in Essen, Germany, begins with the circumstances of Christie's first visit to Iraq in 1928. A British mandate territory at the time, though soon to become independent, the country was within convenient reach of well-heeled travellers, who would take the luxurious Orient Express from London to Istanbul, changing trains there to the Taurus Express, which would take them on to Baghdad.
This Christie did both in 1928 and in 1930, having already begun to publish the novels that were to make her famous, in order to inspect the excavations that the British archaeologist Leonard Woolley was undertaking at the ancient site of Ur. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon had presented the Tutankhamun finds to the world in a blaze of publicity only a few years earlier, and Ur seemed to offer similar possibilities.
Christie joined the excavations following her marriage to Mallowan, then Woolley's assistant, the couple subsequently collaborating on Mallowan's own projects. This led her first to Arpachiyah near the ancient Assyrian site of Nineveh in Iraq and then to Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak in Syria, Christie filming the excavations, documenting the finds, and even co-financing the dig when alternative sources of finance could not be found. Following World War II, she returned to Iraq with Mallowan, who had undertaken a notable new project at the Assyrian site of Nimrud near the northern Iraqi city of Mosoul, spending at least part of each year in Iraq over the following decade.
The exhibition includes objects found during these excavations, as well as pieces testifying to Christie's personal involvement in them, such as letters, diaries and photographs. The curators have also been able to present excerpts from the films that Christie made of the work, some of which are in colour. These materials show Christie to have been at least as interested in the country and its population as she was in the archaeological work itself. Indeed, much of her contribution seems to have consisted of negotiating the excavation's needs with local contractors and service providers.
The catalogue published to accompany the exhibition, translated from the German original, contains much additional information that will be of interest to Christie fans. Particularly noteworthy is an article by Volker Neuhaus, The Archaeology of Murder, which points up the parallels between detection and archaeology.
Both archaeologist and detective, he points out, are concerned with reconstructing past events from present traces, either in the form of clues left at the scene of the crime that can then be pieced together through careful observation, or as archaeological remains that, correctly interpreted, can yield knowledge of the past. A further essay, The Detective and the Archaeologist continues this theme by noting that Poirot himself, in Death on the Nile, comments on the parallels between his own procedures and those used by archaeologists at Luxor.
"In the course of an excavation, when something comes out of the ground, everything is cleared away very carefully all around it. You take away the loose earth, and you scrape here and there with a knife until finally your object is there, all alone, ready to be drawn and photographed with no extraneous matter confusing it. That is what I have been seeking to do -- clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth."
Some of the material gathered here is not entirely convincing -- Waltraud Guglielmi, for example, has been given the unenviable task of writing on Agatha Christie and her Use of Ancient Egyptian Sources, particularly in her unperformed play Akhnaton. The excruciating quotations he gives from this piece do not inspire confidence, and Guglielmi himself is unable to manage any praise of the play ("...in spite of her wide reading and her study of the sources, in the end Agatha Christie makes her material into a murder story").
Similarly, a bizarre German solemnity infects Ulrich Suerbaum's Rules of the Game: Agatha Christie's Construction of the Detective Story, and Reinhold Schiffer's Agatha's Arabs: Agatha Christie in the Tradition of British Oriental Travellers perhaps places Christie in the wrong company. Unlike contemporary figures, he says, such as T E Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, Christie "renounces political analysis; her own comment on possible profound differences between Europeans and orientals remains discreet and guarded."
Nevertheless, the exhibition reveals the intriguing and lifelong involvement that Christie had with the Middle East, and it emphasises the affection she had for Iraq and Egypt in particular. The British Museum authorities have also placed the exhibition in the Near Eastern Antiquities galleries, allowing the visitor to admire Mallowan's find from Nineveh and Nimrud immediately after watching Christie's films of their discovery.
Agatha Christie and Archaeology, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London. Until 24 March.
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