Tea and Grit : A Bicycle Journey along the Silk Road

In 2009, while the US Government is hunting down Osama bin Laden in the Middle East, Helen Watson and her husband Ed set off on a cycling expedition from Glasgow to China. Driven by a desire to understand the world beyond the media portrayal of George W. Bush's 'Axis of Evil', the couple pedal 15,000 km along the Silk Road - ancient trade routes that were undergoing rapid modernisation. Crossing deserts and mountains, minefields and military zones, they reach Muslim China via Syria, Turkey, Iran and Central Asia.

Plagued by sandstorms, overzealous officials and endless punctures, Helen and Ed camp with Bedouin, sleep in farmers' houses, and are hosted by students and local dignitaries. They are waylaid with hundreds of cups of tea and interrogated about Western culture and marriage. Soon after the couple return home, the Arab Spring breaks, and the world Helen and Ed have visited is plunged into war and unrest. Memories of the hospitality the pair received lead them to welcome refugees to Scotland through the UK's first community sponsorship scheme - and to Helen writing about their adventure.

Through evocative prose, this bicycle journey illuminates places rarely visited by Western travel writers: Homs, the most embattled city of the Syrian War; Raqqa, the former capital of Islamic State; the Kurdish heartland of Eastern Turkey; the Islamic Republic of Iran; the secretive state of Turkmenistan; and Kashgar in Uyghur China. Rich in insight and compassion, Tea and Grit offers privileged glimpses into the lives of women in parts of the world characterised by the oppression of female liberties, and celebrates the rich and poetic cultures of the Silk Road that have become imperilled by the aftermath of 9/11. Above all, this is a book about why it is more important than ever before to drink tea with the people we fear as strangers.