Stanley John at the Dulverton exmoor Literary Festival filmed by George Ody.

Watch Stanley John at the Dulverton exmoor Literary Festival filmed by George Ody. - Tindle News on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Otherwise you can just get up there and act it out.

00:07There's funny bits in your book of you learning to start to handle.

00:14Now that's our Chinese co-producing.

00:18China has been unbelievably helpful throughout, honestly.

00:30My name is Stanley Johnson, and 62 years ago I set off with two friends on an adventure of a lifetime,

00:44following the travels of Marco Polo.

00:49The Italian merchant left Venice in 1271 on an epic journey along the Silk Road.

00:58Marco Polo traversed some of the highest mountains in the world and crossed mighty deserts,

01:07ending in the Chinese capital, Tardif, now called Beijing.

01:14A mammoth journey covering nearly 8,000 kilometres.

01:22But back in 1961, time was against us.

01:26We cut our adventure short before we had a chance to enter modern day China.

01:34Now in my 80s, I went back to Finnish for my stuff.

01:39This time I've got a new companion, my youngest son Max.

01:49Together we're going to follow the Silk Road from the breathtaking mountains of China's far western border

01:56I mean, this view is just something else, isn't it?

01:58to the great deserts.

02:01Crossing the mighty Yellow River.

02:04That is a tremendously exciting moment.

02:07Traversing the wide-open plains of Inner Mongolia.

02:14Ending in the country's futuristic capital, Beijing.

02:22All in the footsteps of Marco Polo.