On 6th September 1997, Rosie Thomas, mother of two, bestselling author of a dozen novels, nearing fifty years of age, stepped into a Volvo Amazon in Beijing that was to take her half-way across the world. She and her co-driver - nearly twenty years her junior - Phil Bowen, a pearl diver, charter boat skipper and photographer, were set to retrace the run of the first ever international motor rally.

The excitement of the daily time challenge, the strange camaraderie, the bickering over who should drive, the dangerous endurance test of miles on dirt roads, up mountains and through deserts, followed by nights spent sleeping outdoors or in flea pit hotels, is more than matched by Rosie’s own internal journey, including a near-death experience at the top of the Himalayas.