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 Listen to Excess Baggage for
23 September 2006
The Silk Road or Silk Route, came into being around the 2nd century BC and was a network of routes splitting and converging across the breadth of Asia.听 Over 8,000 km (5,000 miles) long, the routes connected Chang'an in China with Antioch in Asia Minor, as well as other points.听 Theses routes played an important role in the exchange of not only goods but also of ideas, religions and inventions.听
听
Colin Thubron, Award-winning travel writer and novelist travelled from the Tomb of the Yellow Emperor to the ancient Mediterranean port of Antioch and recounts the 7,000 miles journey in his book Shadow of the Silk Road.
TRAVELLING AFTER BEREAVEMENT
John McCarthy also talks to Libby Southwell and Davinder Richards, two women who, having experienced bereavement, set off independently on travels that took them both to and from Australia and to India and the mountain kingdoms of the Himalayas.
Presented by John McCarthy
Photo: Uzbekistan A new silk road with both horses and cars making use of it.
This week's guests:听
听was born in London.听 He worked briefly for a publishing company and as a freelance television film-maker in Turkey, Japan and Morocco.听 A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1969, Colin is a regular contributor and reviewer for magazines and newspapers including The Times, the Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator.
In 2003 Colin had to abandon his attempt to follow the Silk Road because of the war in Afghanistan, but he returned a year later to complete it.听 Colin travelled by bus, truck, car (occasionally Land Rover, horse or camel) through China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, taking in the most sterile desert on earth (the Taklamakan) and the war-torn mountain valleys of today's conflicts.
Shadow of the Silk Road
Publisher: Chatto and Windus
ISBN: 0701173637
Libby Southwell was born in Sydney. She worked as an advertising executive and trained as a cordon bleu chef.听 Following the deaths of her fianc茅 in a mountaineering accident and later two close friends in a plane crash Libby decides that travel was the way out of her mounting depression and introversion over the deaths.
Libby became a chef for an eccentric British millionaire, stayed with herdsmen in Mongolia, travelled to France for a silent Buddhist retreat.听 Back in Sri Lanka she worked for a luxury eco-resort, survived dengue fever, the tsunami on 26 December 2004 and appendicitis on the very same day.听 Libby now lives in Sri Lanka where she has helped to establish a charity to support the rebuilding of people's lives devastated by the tsunami.听 Her book Monsoon Rains And Icicle Drops is the story of her search to rediscover joy.
Monsoon Rains And Icicle Drops
Libby Southwell with Josephine Brouard
Publisher: Pier 9
ISBN: 1740457897听
听
A group of individuals and businessmen whose objective is to assist rebuilding and rehabilitating local communities on the coastline of Sri Lanka to get their lives back to normal as quickly as possible.
Davinder Richards was born in Kenya and then moved to England.听 Davinder gave up her job to care for her husband.听 Following his death in 2002, Davinder needed some time away from England to deal with her grief and decided to do some travelling, she applied for voluntary work in Bangladesh; a textile designer by trade she worked as an advisor to people making textiles there.听
This experience prompted Davinder to buy a round the world ticket, starting with a cousin's wedding in Darjeeling India, she visited Sikkim and Bhutan, travelled to Vietnam and onto Sydney and then to , between Australia and Tasmania, renewing contact with her husband's brother.The 大象传媒 cannot be held responsible for
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| PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES |
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 Sandi Toksvig:
The daughter of a foreign correspondent, Sandi has been travelling all her life more info |
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John McCarthy is a widely travelled journalist and presenter with a particular interest in the Middle East.
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