The Silk Tree: An epic adventure to unravel China's most guarded secret

Description

Forced to flee Rome from the barbaric rampages of the Ostrogoths, merchant Nicander meets an unlikely ally in the form of Marius, a fierce Roman legionary. Escaping to a new life in Constantinople, the two land upon its shores lonely and penniless. Needing to make money fast, they plot and plan a number of outrageous money-making schemes, until they chance upon their greatest idea yet.Armed with a wicked plan to steal precious silk seeds from the faraway land of Seres, Nicander and Marius must embark upon a terrifyingly treacherous journey across unknown lands, never before completed. But first they must deceive the powerful emperor Justinian and the rest of his formidable Byzantine Empire in order to begin their journey into the unknown ... An adventurous tale of mischief, humour and deception, Nicander and Marius face danger of the highest order, where nothing in the land of the Roman Empire is quite what it seems.

At the age of fourteen, Julian Stockwin was sent to Indefatigable, a tough sea-training school. He joined the Royal Navy aged fifteen. Julian has written 14 books to date in the Kydd series of historical adventure fiction, as well as a non-fiction book, Stockwin's Maritime Miscellany. He now lives in Devon with his wife Kathy.

'Stockwin's page-turning prose, vividly drawn characters and ability to draw the reader right into these ancient times create a grand and compelling historical epic'. George Jepson, Quarterdeck Magazine 'A gripping story... showing the familiar style of the author and demonstrating careful research that produces an entirely believable historical novel' Fire Project Online 'This page-turning historical fiction of the first order written with great brio and opening the reader's eyes to a world that, as the author says, 'we in the 21st century can only wonder at' THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE