With host Kevin Brackley, the club’s Membership Secretary, at the lectern the London branch enjoyed the return of two of its most welcome speakers, Justin Marozzi and Jonny Bealby:-

Justin spoke about his latest adventure “Travels with Herodotus. historical adventures with the father of history”, which traces his travels around much of the world as known to the Greek scholar nearly 2500 years ago. Justin’s talk was part hero worship, part correcting historical myths and part brain food. Often it is hard for an audience to follow such an ancient subject, but as Justin pointed out … much of what Herodotus experienced echoes through to our more modern era – Persia (Iraq) was torn apart by war, Greece & Turkey were mercantile & political rivals and Egypt was already deeply embedded into antiquity. For me & for subsequent reviewers however the most vivid moments were centred around Justin’s time spent lunching with Patrick Leigh Fermor, in the latter’s home in Greece … between the two men a warmth & personal bond developed over a long, languid lunch. I enjoyed their sense of shared eccentricities, their continued questioning of the wider world and the fact this meeting of the generations happened around a table with food & wine flowing…

Justin Marozzi is a writer and journalist who has travelled extensively throughout the Muslim world – to read more view his web site at http://www.justinmarozzi.com/

Perennial favourite & all round nice guy Jonny this time spoke passionately about the Silk Route and Wild Frontiers’ experiences of including trips based along it into their calendar. To a particularly attentive audience, which also saw much of the club’s Committee counting up kisses from the man himself, Jonny regaled us with what it meant to him to travel the Old Silk Road on horseback. Whether it was talking about the stunning sights he had chance to enjoy, the enterprising & resourceful peoples he met or how he handled mishaps whilst on the journey, Jonny took us with him all the way. His talks are never dull and as shown by the raft of questions afterwards, Jonny engages his audiences.

To learn more about Jonny and his travelling world view http://www.wildfrontiers.co.uk/

For details of the forth coming meetings of the London branch, October 2008 through to July 2009 – http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/lon09it1.html.

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend. There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh in September. For more information, contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk.