UNRAVELLING THE SILK ROAD (PB)

Three textile roads tangle their way through Central Asia. The famous Silk Road united east and west through trade. There was also the Wool Road, of critical importance when houses made from wool enabled nomads to traverse the inhospitable winter steppes. Then there was the Cotton Road, marked by greed and colonialism. At this intersection of human history, fortunes were made and lost through shimmering silks, life-giving felts and gossamer cottons. Chris Aslan, who has spent fifteen years living and working in the region, expertly unravels the strands of this tangled history.