“Silk weaving in Afghanistan, bartering in Peshawar and snipers in Bosnia”.   I shall be giving a Lunch time talk about my book “Beyond that Last Blue Mountain. My Silk Road journey” with PowerPoint presentation.  12.30pm lunch in the Music School followed by 2pm talk in the Quilter Hall, Wells.

The book has been reviewed by the Arab News, Beirut. Click on the link http://www.arabnews.com/node/1391381/books

What people say about the book:

Shades of Hester Stanhope and Florence Dixie. It made me laugh; it made me cry; it made me want to reach across the page and tell you everything would be all right.I had that lovely feeling when you are enjoying a book of looking forward to the next day; I had that sense of loss when it was finished.You write dispassionately about awful things without saying they are awful which makes them more so. M.K

I have read the first 60 pages and have to tell you that I couldn’t put it down.  I am just settling down to spend this evening reading on. JMcB

Your book is absolutely amazing.  Love all your descriptions of the places that you have travelled to – one can just smell the atmosphere, the spices, and hear the sounds, feel the heat, so much so, that you feel you are there.   Your experiences in some cases absolutely hair-raising and amazed that you survived.     Your illness must have been an atrocious, horrible time for you but how wonderful that you had so many friends bringing in little gifts for you to help you get better.    One of the best books that I have read, couldn’t put it down, I would recommend it to anyone to read. J.G.

Your descriptions of the country through which you travelled, the bazaars, the hardship faced by by-standers in war zones and the damage done to ancient irreplaceable sites in all the war zones make the reader cognizant of matters we all read of through the period but probably had little sensitivity to in the midst of our own busy lives. All in all, an excellent read. Well done! D.D.