Author Rosie Thomas travelled the same routes as the ancient pashmina trade, crossing the Himalayas from Ladakh to the Vale of Sringar in Kashmir, to research her recent novel The Kashmir Shawl. She spent time in Cairo and the desert as she worked on Iris and Ruby, named 2007 Romantic Novel of the Year. Here she talks about how her love of travel and adventure has inspired her writing.

Thomas has competed in the Peking to Paris car rally, sailed across the Atlantic and travelled the Silk Road through Asia. In this polar anniversary year, she recently recreated Shackleton’s sea journey across the southern ocean to South Georgia, then followed his epic mountaineering journey across the island to the Stromness whaling station.