Conville & Walsh

Alexander Monro has been distracted by China and her neighbours for several years and should probably move on. In 2002, he travelled across Mongolia by horse in the footsteps of Genghis Khan and, two years later, completed the trip as he explored the Timurid architecture of Central Asia, from western China to Afghanistan. He has written and begged a living in Beijing and Shanghai as a student and a journalist, studying mandarin and Chinese politics in Cambridge and writing features on Shanghai life and on the arts for Reuters. Back in London, he wrote on Chinese politics and public policy as a political risk consultant at Trusted Sources and continued to freelance for various UK publications as well as writing for Times Online.

He wrote three chapters for The Dragon Throne, a history of China’s dynasties edited by Jonathan Fenby, and a chapter on Genghis Khan for Seventy Great Journeys, published by Thames and Hudson. He has also edited two poetry anthologies for the travel publisher Eland. The second of these, to be published in 2009, is a collection of translated classical Chinese poetry.