Venue: The Wokingham Theatre.
The Silk Road extended for over 8,000 kms, acting as a highway for beliefs, ideas, inventions and art, whilst silk was just one of the many products traded for 1,400 years. Buddhism spread throughout Central Asia and there are wonderful paintings from the Magao Caves at Dunhuang and the 'Caves of the Thousand Buddhas' at Bezeklik. Samarkand and Bukhara are the beginning of the great Islamic buildings that continue through Persia and Syria. Along the way we see traditional murals, ceramics, statues, carpets, architecture, mosaics, tile-work, rock carvings and of course, silk itself.
Christopher Bradley is a writer photographer, film-maker, lecturer and tour leader specialising in the Middle East and North Africa. He has written and photographed the Berlitz Guides to Oman, Abu Dhabi, Libya, Cairo, Egypt Red Sea and Nile Cruising. He has contributed to the Insight Guides to The Silk Road and Egypt.
As a cameraman and producer for his own production company, he has made television documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and National Geographic TV.
Booking will open at 6.30m before the AGM and lecture on 20th September