They Came to Baghdad

Finished the second book on the list earlier this week. They Came to Baghdad (1951) is not a classic. It reminds me of an Enid Blyton book written for 'young gels'. It's difficult to relate to the protagonist, Victoria Jones, or Viccy as she is referred to by her pash, Edward. She's young, naughty, a bad shorthand-typist (I can relate to that), in 1930s terms, plucky and irreverent. But still of good stock since she's accepted wherever she goes in Iraq, including the British Consulate in Basrah. It's not a great read, but it is interesting from the perspective of my project. Ms Christie loved the Middle East and archeology and she must have relished writing the descriptions of Victoria's walking tour of Baghdad. It's one of the best parts of the book. After a strange kidnapping segment, our Viccy is rescued by an unlikely hero called Richard Baker. He's an archeologist and takes her to a Dig called Tell Aswad. I'm not sure if this is a real place, so will have to look it up on a map at some point. A small town called Mandali is nearby, if it isn't fiction.

Victoria finds the Dig to be a sanctuary from the undercover adventures she'd become involved with after making her way to Baghdad from London by devious means. Again, this description rings true and must reflect Ms Christie's own experiences while working with her husband, Max Mallowan. Written after WW2 and more than 10 years since she had spent those happy months in Syria and Iraq, I imagine that she would have been filled with nostalgia as she wrote those pages. Like Ms Christie, Victoria makes herself useful by developing photographs. I wonder who the book was written for, as she refers to Nazu pottery and the 'antika room'; terms which I don't know and would not expect the majority of readers to know either. Still, good fiction should educate too.

It's interesting to read the descriptions of Baghdad and Bashrah - places that were so different to the UK culture, but yet had their charms as described by Ms Christie. Now all we think about is war and violence. I would love to visit the places she refers to in the novel, but I would expect it is too dangerous just now.

Meanwhile, I've started Murder in Mesopotamia. This looks like a rich fund for my project as the story is set in an archeological dig. Hmmm.