Nature or nurture? The story of Charles Sobhraj
And trying to make sense of the senseless Back in the 70’s and barely out of school, I went on a backpacking adventure across the Asian hippie trail. It was exciting, but it was also dangerous. There was no internet, no mobile phones. If you disappeared, no one would know about it for weeks. And […]
Why Kali isn’t as terrifying as she looks
And what’s her connection to the Rolling Stones? Icons and statues make her appear utterly terrifying. She is red-eyed with rage, and her tongue lolls manically out of her mouth. She holds a sword in one of her many hands, a severed head in another. Around her neck she wears a garland of skulls. She looks ferocious, even evil, to the western […]
Valerius’s Journey: Ends of the Earth
The world beyond the Roman Empire The journey made by Valerius from far western China to Rome was around 25,000km and took him almost two years. Researching this journey made Ends of the Earth the most challenging novel I’ve ever written. The Roman Empire and the events of 53 to 44 BC are well documented. So is the […]
The inspiration behind Stands with a Fist in Dances with Wolves
One of the greatest and saddest love stories of the Wild West She was christened Cynthia Ann Parker, but she would have told you her name was Naduah, which translates as Keeps Warm With Us. Author and screenwriter Michael Blake said that his character Stands with a Fist was based upon Cynthia. She was born in 1824 in Illinois to Silas and Lucy […]
Napoleon and the Rosetta Stone
Finding the Rosetta Stone During the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt in 1799, French soldiers were strengthening the defences of a fort at Rosetta, now Rashid, in the Nile Delta. They uncovered an unusual stone with strange markings that had been used as part of the fortifications. Their officer, Pierre-François Bouchard, ordered the men to stop work. He sent the stone to Alexandria for further examination. Napoleon had brought a council […]
Titanic: was there really a Jack and Rose?
And did they have sex in the back seat of a 1912 Renault? James Cameron, the writer and director of Titanic based Kate Winslet’s character, Rose du Witt Bukater, on real life American artist Beatrice Wood. Like Rose, Beatrice was the daughter of wealthy socialites and defied her parents to pursue a career as an artist. She lived an extraordinary life, […]
The 27th letter of the alphabet
And how the Romans are involved again Of course, there are only 26 letters in the alphabet. But once there were 27. Well 29, but we’ll get to that later. The additional letter is the ampersand. Today it’s mainly used in company names, like Barnes & Noble, or in abbreviations like R & R. It’s an unusual little critter. So, […]
Marco Polo: Epic adventurer or armchair traveller?
And the man who did it first Marco Polo. His name has become a byword for epic adventure. The man who, in the 13th century, explored the Silk Road all the way to China. Or did he? There are historians who claim he simply wrote down gossip he heard from other merchants. Others have accused him of being an armchair traveller who never went further east than Persia. Some even […]
Genghis Khan, but you can’t
The Mongol Horde and the Silk Road Genghis Khan. His name is synonymous with brutality and ruthlessness. He was responsible for more deaths than Stalin and Hitler combined. His military campaigns sometimes involved eliminating an entire civilian population. 40 million people died because of him. Over two decades, that’s one person killed every twenty seconds. […]
From Gladiator to Game of Thrones
The Hollywood of Morocco It’s one of the most iconic images from HBO’s Game of Thrones. Daenerys Targaryen, ‘Khaleesi’, being lauded by the slaves she has freed outside the gates of the fictional city of Yunkai. But after the production crew and digital enhancers went home, it remained a real place. Photo: copyright HBO – […]
