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Welcome
Publication Date: 1 Dec 2011 - £14.95
ISBN 978-0-9570840-0-1
http://www.maryrussell.info
"Beautifully written, mixing historical observations with
first-hand experience. Russell's book will be a
welcome introduction for all visitors to Syria."
Dr. Eugene Rogan, University of Oxford
My Home is Your Home
A Journey round Syria
by Mary Russell
Syria is a country few people know much about - apart
from the political upheavals of the last few months.
My Home is Your Home will change all that. Equipped
with notebook, biro, bicycle and, occasionally, a bus
ticket, Mary Russell travelled not only to places such
as Aleppo, Homs and Hama but also to some of the
more remote parts of Eastern Syria taking,
unexpectedly, an overnight taxi ride across the desert
from Damascus to Baghdad. The result is an
enthralling and quite unique account of this complex
country.
Mary Russell is well-known for The Blessings of a
Good Thick Skirt her book about women travellers and
explorers throughout the ages. In My Home is Your
Home, she employs the survival strategies of the solo
traveller, seasoning a devil-may-care attitude with a
pinch of common sense when taking on everything
that comes her way in Syria be it a pack of feral dogs,
an important host or a chain-smoking Sufi sheik.
Essentially a cultural travel book , appended to it is a
postscript which offers both a background and an
update to the present political situation which readers
will find useful.
Sample Chapter:
Chapter 20 - The Mystery of Islam and the Music of Sufism
Click here to read Chapter 20 in full
Sample Chapter:
Chapter 22 - Crossing the border into Iraq
The taxi driver says I now have to go to the medical centre for my anti-Aids injection. This is the real obstacle, the one I have been dreading. To enter Iraq, you have to have either a certificate stating you are Aids free – a certificate which might or might not be accepted by the border people – or you have to submit to having an anti-Aids injection right here in this hell-like place of dilapidated buildings, diesel fumes, revving truck engines, glaring lights and men hoping for backhanders…
Click here to read Chapter 22 in full
For interviews and readings:
scribea1@hotmail.com
"The real voyage of discovery consists not
in seeing new lands but in seeking with new eyes."
Proust
"Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar."
Machado
(For the walker, there is no road except the one he makes for
himself.)
Hi! I hope you enjoy this site
(You can always let me know if you don't though better still
if you do.)
It has a bit of everything. Lots on travel, of course, but
also a selection of my newspaper features, a few short stories and extracts from my work in progress.
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