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HarperCollins are to publish The Grand Tour, which comprises a series of letters and photographs, telling of Agatha Christie's round-the-world adventure.

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Previously unpublished, letters and photos by the infamous crime fiction writer Agatha Christie detail her year-long world trip she took in 1922. Travelling to Hawaii, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, Christie began her adventure as part of a trade mission ahead of the British Empire Expedition. Describing her travels in weekly letters to her mother and frequently taking snapshots of the exotic locations, The Grand Tour gives new insight into Christie's life.

Learning to surf in Cape Town and Honolulu, Christie said it was 'occasionally painful as you took a nosedive down into the sand, but on the whole it was an easy sport and great fun', before exclaiming it was 'heaven' when she managed to stand upright on her surfboard.

HarperCollins struck a deal to publish the collection April next year with Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, and the Agatha Christie Archive Trust. Prichard called the book a 'valuable record of its time'.

'As well as writing books, Agatha Christie was an inveterate traveller, a keen photographer and a voluminous letter writer,' he said. 'This record of the 1922 British Empire tour charmingly combines all three skills.' He added.

'The letters are full of tales of seasickness and sunburn, motor trips and surf boarding, and encounters with welcoming locals and overbearing Colonials.' said publisher David Brawn.

Photograph: Agatha Christie Archive Trust

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