Wild East

'I first glimpsed Mongolia from the air. The overwhelming impression was of space, beauty and a deceptive serenity; a gently undulating sea of rich grass, flecked with white felt tents, like aspirin scattered over a green bedspread.'For most of us, the name Mongolia conjures up exotic images of wild horsemen, endless grasslands, and nomads - a timeless and mysterious land that time forgot. Under Genghis Khan, the Mongol empire stretched across Asia and into the heart of Europe. But over the centuries Mongolia disappeared from the world's consciousness, over-shadowed and dominated by its powerful neighbours; first China, which ruled Mongolia for centuries, then Russia, which transformed the feudal nation into the world's second communist state. Jill Lawless arrived in Mongolia to find a country waking from centuries of isolation, at once rediscovering its heritage as a nomadic and Buddhist society and discovering the trappings of the Western world. The result is a land of fascinating and bewildering contrasts: a vast country where yaks graze the steppe, teenagers rollerblade amid the Soviet apartment blocks of Ulaanbaatar, the rich drive Mercedes and surf the Internet, and more than half the population still lives in gers, scratching out a living in one of the world's harshest landscapes. Skilfully weaving the humorous and the informative, Wild East is an insightful and haunting portrait of a beautiful and troubled country.