John Keay is the author of numerous classic histories and travel works. He specialises in Asian subjects but lives in Scotland and is co-editor (with Julia Keay) of the seminal COLLINS ENCYLOPAEDIA OF SCOTLAND (2nd edition 2001). His first book, INTO INDIA (1973), remained in print for twenty five years and his next two (now issued as THE EXPLORERS OF THE WESTERN HIMALAYAS) are still in print.

In the l980's he worked as a roving writer/presenter for BBC Radio 3 and 4 but has since concentrated on books, producing works on the East India Company and the history of exploration.

His twentieth century histories include the acclaimed LAST POST; THE END OF EMPIRE IN THE FAR EAST (1997) and the imminent SOWING THE WIND; THE SEEDS OF CONFLICT IN THE MDDLE EAST (2003). His 5000 YEAR INDIA; A HISTORY (2000) is to be published as a Folio Society edition and his THE GREAT ARC (2000) was a best seller. All these titles have also appeared in U.S. editions and several have been translated.

He is currently working on a book about the Mekong river and another about Buddhist 'travelogogy'. Published mainly by HarperCollins and John Murray, John Keay enjoys an enviable reputation as a writer of authority on many subjects and as one of our most stylish and accessible historians.

Aromatic spices and exotic trade routes mingle headily in this lush, evocative history. An exotic saga with the tang of drama in every voyage, THE SPICE ROUTE transports the reader from the dawn of history to the ends of the earth.

The Spice Route is one of history's great anomalies. Shrouded in mystery, it existed long before anyone knew of its extent or alignment. Spices came from lands unseen, possibly uninhabitable, and almost by definition unattainable; that was what made them so desirable. Yet more livelihoods depended on this pungent traffic, more nations participated in it, more wars were fought over it, and more discoveries resulted from it than from any other global exchange.

In a bid to discover and exploit the spice route, mankind first passed beyond his known horizons to probe the limits of our planet. Epic was the quest, and in this major new study, epic is the treatment as John Keay pieces together a historical process that spans three millennia and a geographical progression that encircles the world.