Tag Archives: the Silk Road

THE LEGENDARY XANADU IN LEGENDARY LEGO

Posted on November 27, 2014 by [email protected]

Before I wrote SILK ROAD, I thought Xanadu was something Coleridge dreamed up during one of his opium-induced reveries. Unfortunately someone interrupted him before he finished the poem, and he lost his flow. It has been suggested by some scholars … Continue reading →

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THE JOYS OF RESEARCH #2: SIBERIA. MIDNIGHT. JUST YOUR PAJAMAS.

Posted on October 8, 2014 by [email protected]

So this time it was the Trans Siberian Express from Moscow to Vladivostock. We had got as far as the tundra and so far no one had thrown up in the dining car. Things were looking good. There were four … Continue reading →

Posted in HUMOR, WRITING | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

WHY I’M PROUD TO BE AUSTRALIAN TODAY

Posted on October 7, 2014 by [email protected]

The video was made by Sydney Macquarie University media and law student Kamal Saleh, as a social experiment to test if anti-Islamic views in Australia were as widespread as the media would have us believe. “This video is hard proof … Continue reading →

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the joys of research #1: BIG CHUCK IN LITTLE CHINA

Posted on October 6, 2014 by [email protected]

I was finishing the research for SILK ROAD. We were on a train from Xian to Kashgar, three days that would take us south of the Great Wall, skirt the Taklimakan desert and on towards the Pamir Mountains and the … Continue reading →

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ARE YOU RELATED TO GENGHIS KHAN?

Posted on August 7, 2014 by [email protected]

Are you sure you’re not related to Genghis Khan? There’s a one in two hundred chance that you could be a distant relative of one of the great mass murderers in all history. Much higher, if you were born along … Continue reading →

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HE FOUND THIS IN A SECRET VATICAN ARCHIVE. OR DID HE?

Posted on October 8, 2013 by [email protected]

The following document was recently discovered in the Vatican archives by author Colin Falconer. (or so he claims.)   It is the record of a violent disagreement between William of Augsburg, Dominican friar and special emissary to the court of … Continue reading →

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GENGHIS KHAN BUT YOU CAN’T

Posted on September 12, 2013 by [email protected]

There is a one in two hundred chance you are related to Genghis Khan. It doesn’t matter that your surname is not Khan. His DNA may be in you somewhere. This is one of the delightful snippets I found when … Continue reading →

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ETERNAL LIFE, MAN-EATING ANTS, STRINGY NOODLES - HOLD THE TOMATOES

Posted on August 22, 2013 by [email protected]

Somehow western culture has equated the word Mongol with ‘barbarian’. There is no doubt the Golden Horde that invaded Europe during the thirteenth century was savage, but that overlooks the comparable excesses of western armies at the time; think the … Continue reading →

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GENGHIS KHAN - BUT YOU CAN’T

Posted on May 21, 2012 by [email protected]

As every historical fiction author will tell you, you only get to use about 10% of your research and another fifty per cent of that disappears in the second draft. You just hate to see some of it go, but … Continue reading →

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ETERNAL LIFE AND MAN-EATING ANTS - WITH STRINGY NOODLES

Posted on May 12, 2012 by [email protected]

While researching my latest novel, SILK ROAD, I was struck by the irony of how people in medieval Europe thought of anyone who was not Christian as a ‘barbarian’. It is perhaps just human nature; most cultures, western and Oriental, … Continue reading →

Posted in HISTORY | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments