In April 1928, Agatha Christie's divorce from her first husband Archie Christie was finalised. She had been deeply hurt by the experience. She spent the summer finding herself somewhere to live and a school for her daughter Rosalind. Already the well-known author of several successful crime novels, she buried herself in her writing. By the autumn of that year Agatha was ready for a holiday, and began planning a trip to the West Indies. But a chance meeting with a young naval officer and his wife just returned from the Middle East changed her mind, and she decided upon Baghdad instead.