THE SILK TREE

THE SILK TREE tells the story of how the secret of silk was brought to the west from China, at a time when the western world still believed that silk grew on trees, and was harvested with a silver comb.

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.

Julian Stockwin joined tough sea-training school at 14, followed by the Royal Navy, transferring to the Royal Australian Navy when his family emigrated. He saw service in the Far East, Antarctic, South Seas and
Vietnam, and was on board the "Melbourne" at the time of its disastrous peace time collision with the "Voyager" . Later worked for NATO on the strategic deployment of merchant shipping. Shortlisted: Mountbatten Maritime Literary Award 2008.