Jessica Mudditt in-conversation with Adam Courtenay

From a monks' dormitory in Laos to the steppes of Inner Mongolia, join Jessica Mudditt as she travels thousands of kilometres across some of the most beautiful and fascinating parts of the planet.

Come along to celebrate the launch of Jessica Mudditt’s second memoir, Once Around the Sun – From Cambodia to Tibet. It is a prequel to Our Home in Myanmar.

While nursing a broken heart at the age of 25, Jessica Mudditt set off from Melbourne for a year of solo backpacking through Asia. She had spent six years at university, yet still had no idea what she is going to do with the rest of her life. Her willingness to try almost anything quickly lands her in a scrape in Cambodia. With the nation's tragic history continuing to play out in the form of widespread poverty, Jessica looks for ways to make a positive impact. She crosses overland into a remote part of Laos, where friendships form fast and jungle adventures await. Vietnam is an intoxicating sensory overload, and the hedonism of the backpacking scene reaches new heights. Jessica is awed by the scale and beauty of China, but she has underestimated the language barrier and begins her time there feeling lost and lonely. In circumstances that take her by surprise, Jessica finds herself hiking to Mount Everest base camp in Tibet.

Once Around the Sun will be launched by Adam Courtenay, a Sydney-based writer and journalist who has had a long career in the UK and Australia, writing for papers such as the Financial Times, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review. He is the author of the popular narrative history books The Ship that Never Was, The Ghost and the Bounty Hunter and Three Sheets to the Wind (ABC Books). He is the son of iconic Australian writer, Bryce Courtenay.