The Silk Tree

'Julian Stockwin, a master of the historic novel, writes with a zeal, re-creating ancient times, with fast-paced prose, vivid characters, and matchless authenticity.' - QUARTERDECK MAGAZINE Rome 549 AD. Forced to flee the city, merchant Nicander and legionary Marius escape to a new life in Constantinople. Determined to make their fortune, they plot a number of outrageous money-making schemes, until they chance upon their greatest idea yet. Armed with an audacious plan to steal precious silk seeds from the faraway land of Seres, Nicander and Marius must embark upon a terrifying and treacherous journey across unknown realms. But first they must deceive the powerful ruler Justinian and the rest of his formidable Byzantine Empire in order to begin their voyage into the unknown. In an adventurous tale of mischief 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 lives in Plymouth with his wife Kathy.