From a land of milk,
And a Road of Silk,
To a ring of roses,
And a dance of posies,
Comes the tale of the spirit of the times!
In fourteenth-century Central Asia, Karia is a young woman living under the yoke of Mongol occupation. But she’s different. She’s a fighter with supernatural powers. She could use them to keep the Black Plague at bay and solve the mystery of the purple skies at dawn – if only she could overcome her self-doubt.
Travelling in caravans on the Silk Road, she faces dangers seen and unseen – from sandstorms and slave traders to the desert djinn and folk who believe she’s a witch. She fears losing Abi, her little cousin, who’s fascinated by roses and the dance of the Whirling Dervishes of Bukhara.
When Karia falls in love with an English sailor fleeing the Knights Hospitaller, they sail to England with Abi to unravel the meaning of the purple skies, a dance, a posy tree, and a ring of roses.
The Spirit of the Times is part history, part fiction and part speculation: on the origin of disease; the power of innocence; the unfortunate aspects of custom and dogma; and humanity’s ability to respond to the governing influence or spirit of the times.
What is Writing?
Writing is something most of us do every day of our childhood and adult lives, from a school essay to a shopping list, a signature to a diary entry, a text message to a whole novel, we do it all the time.
But what is writing?
Given it’s such a common, ubiquitous activity, you’d think we know.
One dictionary defined writing as ‘the act or process of producing and recording words’. Another defined it as ‘the activity of writing.’
Both are vague and circular. They define it by referring it back to itself. Writing is... err... writing. Perhaps they don’t know either. Perhaps it is a mystery.
Writing, or at least the written word, is a means of communication. In ancient times, words were sacred, and could only be written by those endowed with the power and authority to do so - the priests and scribes. The written word was a hieroglyph, which literally means sacred word. In the New Testament, the opening of the Book of John testifies to that fact. ‘In the beginning was the word, and the word was with
God, and the word was God.’
Then there’s the strange story related in the Book
of Daniel 5:5, where, during the Feast of
Belshazzar (Rembrandt’s painting is shown here):
‘In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's
hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon
the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the
king saw the part of the hand that wrote.’ Where
did the fingers come from? How did they know
how to write, and in Aramaic, a script with which
the King was familiar? And where on earth did the
writing come from? Now, if we knew the answer to that one.
It’s said that the pen is mightier than the sword. And words written by the pen certainly are. When we string a few of them together and make a sentence, and string a few of those together and make a paragraph, and so on, what is going on? What is writing? Is it a threading or joining together of multiple parts of similar frequency?
Authors like to play with words. Change the letters around this way and that to see what they reveal about the inner meaning of a word. Look at the word ‘write’. It’s ‘w-rite’. Perhaps the core of the word ‘write’ is that it’s a rite, which itself is defined as a religious ceremony. This takes us back to the original notion that words are sacred in origin. But why? Is it because of where they come from?
The reason was because ancient Egyptian scribes omitted the vowels from the written word. Strange, but true. None of the hieroglyphs on the walls of the tombs and in the spells contain a single vowel. Now, why would they do that? Was it because, somehow in those days, just like the hand that wrote on the wall, the written word was full of mysteries and, in this case, the power of the word was held in the vowel, which, for safety reasons, was best omitted from any writing? Here’s another approach.
There’s a saying that ‘It’s not what wrote the book, it’s
what was out of balance in the author that wrote the book.’ This introduces the idea that writing has a cathartic element to it. Catharsis is defined as the process of releasing strong or repressed emotions. More generally, catharsis is a rebalancing of what is out of balance in a person. Perhaps that’s why so many people are writing books these days.
A classic example from modern times is that of the author James Clavell. He was imprisoned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. You’d think that, following the severe deprivation he suffered at the hands of his captors over so many years, that the Japanese would be the very last people he’d write about. But no. Once the war ended, he wrote several novels featuring Japanese history, notably Shogun and Tai-Pan. This is the power of writing as catharsis.
Here's another approach to the write - or is it the rite? Up until 1948 in the UK, criminals convicted of serious offences were sentenced to penal servitude or hard labour, meaning they toiled every day building roads, breaking rocks, and doing heavy lifting. It was understood that the criminal had broken the law because of something out of balance in them. Hence the original motive behind the sentence was cathartic, whose purpose was to use up or tire by intense and prolonged physical activity that which was out of balance in them. In a sense, the hard labour was a rite, which is curious because ‘rite’ is an anagram of ‘tire’.
Finally, is writing a kind of mumming? Mumming is the art of re-enactment of a historical period or incident. It’s a kind of role-play evoking olden times. Does writing do the same, or is it a media through which a mumming of what has been before, and what is ‘now’, can happen - a notion that particularly applies to the writing of historical fiction? Does it evoke, through the written word, the ideas, the ambiance of the times being written about?
So, when you write, when you join the letters and the words, what are you doing? What’s the inner story of writing? Is it a rite? Is it a mumming? Is it a joining of multiple aspects into a unity? Is it a managing of the eternal in the now?
You’re the writer. You decide.
Justin Newland 9th July 2026
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Music that inspired the novel, and which beautifully evokes the Steppes of Central Asia:
Justin Newland
Justin Newland's novels represent an innovative blend of genres, from historical adventure to supernatural thriller and magical realism.
Undeterred by the award of a doctorate in mathematics from Imperial College, London, he conceived his debut novel, The Genes of Isis (Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set under Ancient Egyptian skies. Next came The Old Dragon’s Head (Matador, 2018), set in Ming Dynasty China in the shadows of the Great Wall.
The Coronation (Matador, 2019) features the Great Enlightenment and speculates on the genesis of the most important event in the modern world – the Industrial Revolution. The Abdication (Matador, 2021) is a mystery thriller in which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it means to abdicate that faith.
At this point in his writing career, after four self-published books, Justin was offered a part-funded contract with the Book Guild.
The Mark of the Salamander (Book Guild, 2023) is the first in a two-book ‘The Island of Angels’ series. It tells the epic tale of England’s coming of age during the Elizabethan era. The second in the series, The Midnight of Eights (Book Guild, 2024), charts the uncanny coincidences of time and tide that culminated in the repulse of the Spanish Armada.
His latest novel, The Spirit of the Times (Matador, 2026), is to be published in July. It tells the story of a young Kyrgyz woman’s journey westwards along the Silk Road. With purple skies at dawn, and a supporting cast of Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, a perplexing rhyme, a ring of roses, it explores the greatest mystery of all – the spirit of the times.
Justin’s enduring passion is to explore the origins of our current time. This prompted a broad research into what we’ve inherited from history – encompassing Egypt, China, Prussia and Tudor England.
He also writes entertaining talks which he gives to the WI, U3A, Probus, Rotary and local historical associations. Please visit his website for a current list of the talks.
Alongside the talks, Justin promotes his work with regular book signings at TG Jones (ex. WH Smith) high street stores, selling over 3,500 books since 2019. He has sponsored over 40 UK and US blog tours, given frequent radio interviews and penned many guest posts.
His current book signing motto is: Enjoy, Imagine, Discover.
As a member of the Society of Authors, he has Public and Products Liability Insurance.
Born in Essex, England, three days before the end of 1953, he lives with his lady in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.
Connect with Justin:
Website • Facebook • Instagram
Amazon Author Page • BookBub • Goodreads
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