Tearing up the Silk Road is an irreverent travelogue, detailing a journey along the ancient trade routes from China to Istanbul, through Central Asia, Iran and the Caucasus. While rushing through from East to West, Tom Coote meets, befriends and argues with an epic range of characters; from soldiers and monks to pilgrims, travellers and modern day silk-road traders. All are striving for something more and most dream of being somewhere else. By bus, train and battered car - through deserts, open plains and mountain ranges - Tom finds himself again and again at the front line of a desperate war for hearts and minds.