Bantam Press • Travel writing

Discovering that Agatha Christie was a frequent visitor to some of the most obscure parts of Syria and Iraq. And then, on further research, realising that she had a whole second life that I never knew existed, which all started with a train journey from London to Baghdad in 1928. I love train travel, and this struck me as a wonderful adventure, one of those journeys which is actually far harder to do today than it was in her day.

How long did it take you to plan your trip, and how difficult was it to organise?

Agatha used just two trains, the Orient Express and the Taurus Express, and then took what was effectively a taxi across 400 miles of desert from Damascus to Baghdad. Although both the OE and the TE still exist, they are nothing like what they used to be, so I had to string together a total of eight trains to do the same trip. And then join a coach of very unlikely characters to cross the desert into Iraq, in the last months before war broke out. Planning all this was not easy. Getting advance train information for routes beyond Belgrade is virtually impossible, and there's no chance of making a reservation.

Could you anticipate what it would be like to travel through places off the usual tourist map, or did you feel as if you were stepping into the unknown?

Iraq was, of course, a unique experience, if just because of the timing, in the last few months of peace. But I also found the Balkans fascinating, and I loved Syria, particularly the northern city of Aleppo. Although these are popularly regarded as difficult destinations, I never once felt threatened - until a brush with a NATO aircraft in southern Iraq.

What was the most surprising aspect of your trip?

Probably Serbia. Everyone told me to watch my back in Belgrade, because the Serbs would take what they could. On the contrary, the Serbs were brilliant. Very hospitable, very intent on having a good time, and not in the least like the pariahs of Europe that they are portrayed.

Where will you be going next?

I travel a lot, on newspaper and magazine commissions, but I think the next big project will be the wildernesses of Northern Canada, for a book about the Hudson Bay Company.