In Search of Genghis Khan

This is not a standard Tim Severin book. Normally a sea voyage, where a third of the book is his research and preparation, often the construction of a boat using historic means.
In this book, Severin has tried to plan a horseback journey in Mongolia, but has received no response, and by chance is invited to Ulan Batuur as a guest lecturer, where he takes up the opportunity to seek further information on his planned journey. Instead he is invited to join an ambitious expedition to ride from Erenzu to the borders of Europe.

A trial ride is undertaken and then the journey begins. There is little explanation of the planning - largely because it was not undertaken by Severin, and he was in the dark about most of the detail. The trial ride was very successful, due to the personnel they travelled with. Most of these people were unavailable for the actual journey, and some conflicts with the main organiser, who was using the journey for his own political gains, mean that Severin and his companion, along with a local doctor who was in the group left early.
From that point on, the three undertake their own travel, visiting remote Kazahk tribesmen, those who still hunt with eagles, and tracks down a shamaness.

Severin does well with a background of Mongolian history, obviously centralised around Genghis Khan, where he intersperses this with the journey. He also draws from several documented expeditions by Europeans - John of Plan Carpini 1245-47, William of Roebuck 1253-55, and Beatrix Bulstrode in 1913, as the journey of Ch'ang Ch'un, the medieval Chinese sage who, as the request of Genghis Khan made a long journey in his old age to visit.

Interesting, and a very easy read, but not in the same detail as his other books.
between three and four stars for me, but at the higher end.