Just before the year 1000 a young Viking named Thorvald the Far-farer turned his back on the pagan gods of his fathers to preach the Christian gospel. But his Icelandic countrymen mocked him as a homosexual, stoned him and finally outlawed him. Abandoning his homeland, Thorvald embarked on an epic journey to the golden heart of all medieval world maps - Jerusalem. A thousand years later, in the year 2000, Victoria Clark embarked on the same journey to discover to what extent the dramatic changes and conflicts sweeping Western Europe a thousand years ago still resonate today.
The Far-farers is both the story of this 21st century journey and a history of extraordinary 11th century western Christendom. Victoria Clark worked for The Observer in Romania, the former Yugoslavia and Russia from 1990 to 1996, reporting the Croatian, Bosnian and first Chechen wars. Her first book, Why Angels Fall, was published in 2000 to great acclaim. This Pan edition of The Far-Farers is published alongside her new book, Holy Fire.
