Rain, falling on wet snow: a day of incipient gloom and indoor-ishness, with that sniffle making its way through each member of the family – towards me.

And then:

It is the Chinese edition of my Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire.

It is also my favourite cover yet – gorgeous colour, great lettering.

Not only does it look like a product of the Silk Road – a bag of rice, perhaps, or a box of Turkish Delight – but it feels like one, too. The cover is smooth and quite thin, and the paper inside is Chinese, old-school, slightly rough, off-white.

The book itself is heavily and brilliantly illustrated, in black and white – and it comes with another little book, ‘An Ottoman Handbook’, with an illustrated glossary of Ottoman terms and practices. What a good idea! I wish we could have one of those in English.