After what seemed like an eternity, the hard cover first edition of my book, published by Douglas & McIntyre, finally arrived this morning by courier. It has been a monumental project, which began a decade ago over a pint of lager at Lund University in Sweden. The official publishing date is September 1, 2010, but I’ve uploaded some photos below to give you a sneak peek before it hits stores later in August.

My good friend Anssi Kullberg, a Swedish-Finn like Gustaf Mannerheim, planted the idea in my head to retrace his epic journey a century ago. It took a year or two of planning and research before I set out in Mannerheim’s footsteps across the Silk Road. I spent nine months abroad, and arrived back in Canada in 2007, at which point I began working on the manuscript.

I have many people to thank, but for now I’d like to thank the team at Douglas & McIntyre that helped to make the physical book possible including Publisher Scott McIntyre, Associate Publisher Chris Labonte, Editor John Burns, Art Director Peter Cocking, Designer Jessica Sullivan and Cartographer Eric Leinberger. Thanks for your dedication, hard work and publishing savvy: the book looks fantastic!

> Read the post on the book’s website.