About the Author

I live with my long-time partner and editor, Jo Wynter, on a remote property in a beautiful tropical forest, west of Cooktown, Queensland, over 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the nearest traffic lights. Although I was born in Montréal, Canada (in 1943), I grew up in Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies. I am of English and French background with a dash of Beothuk - the natives of Newfoundland, who were hounded to extinction in the 1820s or 1830s. As a young man I trained as a Field Assistant and Laboratory Technician in virology in Trinidad. I attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. I began working in fisheries research in Alaska both at sea (for a full year) and ashore in Sandpoint in 1962-63. I moved to Australia in January 1964, and am now a citizen. I graduated as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse in Sydney in 1967, and have worked as a nurse in both Australia and Canada. I lived for more than three years in India in 1979-81 doing research on Indian and Tibetan history. I have worked for many years in remote Aboriginal communities in Australia. I am an independent scholar, and have been fascinated by the exchange of peoples, cultures, religions and trade between Asia, Europe and Africa since my youth. I have travelled extensively in Asia since 1973 exploring archaeological sites, museums and routes. I began translating Chinese texts while living in India and have continued gathering information, and communicating with historians, linguists, archaeologists and other specialists around the world ever since. Their many generous contributions have helped make it an authoritative and useful historical source. I published the first edition of this work in 2009 which received scholarly acceptance and compliments world-wide. I believe this revised and much-expanded edition will remain the definitive reference in its field for many years to come.