Long before the Lonely Planet writers, long before missionaries, adventurers, or even the Crusaders — the Muslim travelers of the Islamic Golden Age, traveled the roads of the early kingdoms, holding to the Quranic commandment "Go about the earth and look".

They were curious, prized practical geography but also embraced storytelling in the most wonderful way: the poet and traveller Abu Dular said "My adventurous soul finds peace in alien things, not in the comfort of the known world".

When broadcaster Richard Fidler was himself unable to find peace in alien things due to the pandemic, his adventurous soul took him into these historical records, piecing together a picture of that lost world.

And in the Drawing Room, Richard talks about his resulting book, The Book of Roads and Kingdoms.