RADIO INTERVIEW OUT NOW

Oxfordshire – 16th April 2023

First-time author Ben Colbridge wrote much of his debut novel, Into Xinjiang, on his daily commute from West Oxfordshire to London between 2016 and 2020 making it the quiet time he needed to write his thriller. With two children happily in school and a new job in west London, Ben decided the only option was to commute and travelled on the Oxford Tube coach four days a week for four years until the pandemic put paid to the journey. The novel was then finished between lockdowns in coffee shops and cafés near where the author lives in West Oxfordshire. 

Published by Matador on 28th April, Into Xinjiang is the story of young British backpacker, Daniel Weaver, who finds himself embroiled in a political scandal whilst travelling in China. Naïve and out of his depth, Daniel makes the panicked decision to run, and he flees into the western desert provinces in pursuit of freedom. Along the way he meets Lisa, an American tour guide who promises to help him escape. However, her motivations remain unclear as a billion people search for the young fugitive. 

First-hand experience
The author, who was previously a China specialist for one of the UK’s leading tailormade travel companies, has spent over three months travelling to all corners of the country on five separate visits and his novel is based on his first-hand experiences, including real people, places and events. The inciting incident, a photo in the street, happened to the author on his first visit to China in 2003 and was the inspiration for his novel, realised almost exactly twenty years after the event. 

Availability

Into Xinjiang is published by Matador on 28th April 2023 and is available in paperback through all good book shops (ISBN 9781803136554) and to download as an ebook on all platforms (eISBN 9781803138015)

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PR contact name: Ben Colbridge

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