The Book:

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.