Agatha's Archaeologists

Shedunnit

Caroline Crampton

Arts, Books

4.9 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Agatha Christie knew more than most about digging up corpses. There are no major spoilers in this episode, but be aware that there are mentions of plot points from the books listed below. Books and sources: — The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie — Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie — An Autobiography by Agatha Christie — Mallowan’s Memoirs by Max Mallowan — Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie — The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie — Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie — And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie — Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie — Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie — They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie — Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie — Cat of Many Tails by Ellery Queen — Murder by Burial by Stanley Casson — Agatha Christie and Archaeology edited by Charlotte Trümpler NB: Links to Blackwell's are affiliate links, meaning that the podcast receives a small commission when you purchase a book there (the price remains the same for you). Blackwell's is a UK independent bookselling chain that ships internationally at no extra charge. To be the first to know about future developments with the podcast, sign up for the newsletter at shedunnitshow.com/newsletter. The podcast is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as @ShedunnitShow, and you can find it in all major podcast apps. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the next episode. Click here to do that now in your app of choice. Find a full transcript of this episode at shedunnitshow.com/agathasarchaeologists Music by Audioblocks and Blue Dot Sessions. See shedunnitshow.com/musiccredits for more details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 1928, Agatha Christie took a momentous decision that was to shape the rest of her life.
0:11.3	Her divorce from her first husband had recently been finalized, and after a holiday abroad
0:16.8	with her best friend and her daughter, she had plans to travel by herself for a while.
0:22.7	Partly, she wanted to indulge her passion for seeing new places, but partly, this solo
0:29.0	trip was a test of her own confidence. As she says in her autobiography, she wanted
0:35.7	to find out what kind of person she was now that she was newly single and unattached.
0:41.7	She feared becoming too dependent on others for her happiness.
0:47.0	She already had tickets booked for the West Indies, when she happened to read about the
0:51.4	amazing archaeological finds being made at a place called Ur in modern-day Iraq.
0:57.9	She had also always wanted to travel on the Orient Express, and suddenly decided that
1:03.0	she would combine both of these interests and go east instead of west.
1:09.0	She dashed out to the travel agents to change her tickets and arrange her visas, and five
1:14.2	days later, she set out by train for Baghdad.
1:19.8	Little did she know that a brand new chapter of her life was awaiting her there.
1:34.8	Welcome to She Done It. I'm Caroline Grampton.
1:46.3	In her autobiography, Ag of the Christie writes that she had always been faintly attracted
1:51.1	to archaeology, although she knew nothing about it.
1:55.6	Even before she set off for Baghdad in 1928, she had had the chance to travel to places
2:01.0	where some of the greatest finds of the century so far had been made, in particular Egypt,
2:06.6	where she had spent the winter of 1907 with her mother.
2:10.7	Her journey to Iraq took her across Europe to Istanbul, and then on to Damascus and
2:15.8	Nenz to Baghdad. There she wrote that although everyone she met was incredibly nice to her,
	...

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