Exclusive: Boris joins father Stanley and brothers Max, Leo and Jo for BSA launch of new Marco Polo book

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined father Stanley and brothers Max, Leo and Jo on vintage BSA motorcycles yesterday as The European’s editor-at-large launched In the Footsteps of Marco Polo, the book telling the story of a journey from Oxford to Beijing that took more than 60 years to complete

Boris Johnson joined father Stanley and brother Max on vintage BSA motorcycles yesterday as The European’s editor-at-large launched his new book about a journey to China first attempted more than 60 years ago.

The former Prime Minister climbed into the saddle at The Old Palace in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, where Stanley launched In the Footsteps of Marco Polo, his account of a remarkable two-part adventure from Oxford to Beijing.

The Johnsons wore old-school helmets and goggles for the pictures, recreating the spirit of the 1961 expedition in which Stanley and two Oxford friends set out on two 500cc BSA Shooting Star motorcycles to follow Marco Polo’s route from Venice to China.

Stanley first set off from Oxford in the summer of 1961 with Tim Severin, the future historian and explorer, and Michael de Larrabeiti, the novelist and travel writer.

Their plan was to follow the route taken by Marco Polo in the 13th century, travelling from Venice towards Beijing on two BSA 500cc Shooting Star motorcycles.

The trio crossed Europe and Asia, travelling through Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, before reaching the Wakhan Corridor on the Afghanistan-China border.

They came tantalisingly close to China, but were unable to cross the High Pamirs on two wheels and were forced to turn away.

With one motorcycle out of action, the three friends continued on the remaining machine from Kabul to Calcutta before returning home with a promise to finish the route one day.

Michael died in 2008 and Tim in 2020, meaning the original trio never had the chance to complete the journey together.

More than 60 years after that first expedition, Stanley returned to the route with his youngest son Max, completing the final 5,000 kilometres across China in 2023.

The pair Stanley used Marco Polo’s original 13th-century travel diaries because they were more useful than Google Maps.

Their journey took them from the Himalayas to Xanadu and on to Beijing, following Marco Polo’s route to the Summer Palace of Kublai Khan and the Chinese capital.

The book, published by Unicorn Publishing Group, is described as the tale of “an extraordinary dream come true” and brings together Stanley’s 1961 expedition with the modern journey he completed with Max.

Ysenda Maxtone Graham, writing in the Daily Mail, called it “a fizzingly entertaining account” of Stanley’s two attempts to retrace Marco Polo’s 13th-century journey.

It was published in March 2026 as a hardback priced at £30.

The journey was also filmed as a four-part documentary series, produced by One Tribe TV, following Stanley and Max as they picked up the route first abandoned at the Chinese frontier.

Yesterday’s launch also paid tribute to BSA, the motorcycle name that made Stanley’s original expedition possible.

Stanley said the Kings Langley launch had a personal significance because of BSA’s place in the original adventure and Max’s role in helping him finish the route decades later.

He said: “It is a huge pleasure to launch the book here in Kings Langley with Boris and Max, and to pay tribute to BSA, which played such an important part in the original journey.

“Max and I had the great good fortune to finish the route together in 2023, and having Boris here today gives the launch a splendid family send-off.”

Max said the launch brought the story neatly back to the machines that first carried Stanley towards China.

He added: “Dad and I covered the last 5,000 kilometres together, so seeing Boris climb aboard a BSA to help launch the book felt like a very fitting Johnson family finale.”

Luke Gregory is the head of BSA UK and co-owner alongside Haydon Chart of The Old Palace, a beautiful 17th century pub in Kings Langley.

He said: “BSA is at the heart of this story, so it is a real honour to welcome Stanley, Boris and Max here to celebrate a journey that began on two 500cc Shooting Stars more than 60 years ago.

“Those bikes carried Stanley and his friends across continents, and the book is a wonderful reminder of the part BSA played in one of the great British motorcycling adventures.”

He won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry in 1962, the Greenpeace Prize and the RSPCA’s Richard Martin Award in 1984, and the RSPB Medal and WWF Leader of the Living Planet Award in 2015.

He is currently President of the Gorilla Organisation, Chairman of GEDU Global Education Advisory Board and Adviser to the World Coastal Forum.

He has written widely on environmental and demographic issues, as well as memoirs and novels, including The Commissioner, which was made into a film starring John Hurt.

The Old Palace said the launch was a proud moment for the pub, which has developed a connection with Stanley through Luke Gregory, co-landlord and UK distributor for BSA Motorcycles.

The venue said Luke supplied the two bikes used by Stanley and Max for the expedition, helping build a relationship with Stanley and the wider Johnson family.

Stanley previously visited the pub after arriving from Kings Langley station in Tony Adair’s “Trotters Independent Traders” Morris Minor, and even stepped behind the bar to pull a couple of pints.

Speaking ahead of the launch, he said: “Pubs play a vital role in the life of this country. The Old Palace is a good old-fashioned boozer – and a perfect place to raise a glass to BSA, to motorcyclists, and to great British pubs.”

In the Footsteps of Marco Polo: Exploring the Old World in Modern Times is published by Unicorn Publishing Group.

READ MORE: ‘New Hindu Kush Himalaya glacier reports warn of deepening risk to Asia’s water security‘. New reports published today lay bare the accelerating loss of ice across the Hindu Kush Himalaya, where glaciers are retreating at increasing speed in a region critical to the water security of nearly two billion people. Here, our editor-at-large Stanley Johnson, drawing on his long career as an environmentalist and ahead of the 30 March re-release of his book In the Footsteps of Marco Polo, reflects on changes to a mountain system whose fate matters far beyond the high Pamirs.

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_{All images: Sam Furlong/The European}