Mitch Bouchette brings a wealth of background and experience from his travels throughout Europe, Africa, Latin America and South West Asia. He is a linguist and has an insatiable curiosity; so it is not surprising that he has a lifetime study of people and places and weaves his observations into the background of his work. He is a self-described "closet academic" with a track record of serious publications in the international relations arena. His current work capitalizes on this background to present a story of people connected by events across a couple of thousand years and a couple of thousand miles.