London Lecture VIDEO
Extraordinary Voyages of the Panchatantra https://ramsaywood.com/media/

Ramsay Wood is the author of two sui generis modern novels which aim — with inter-connected frame-story narratives — to capture the ancient (pre-literate) oral story-listening drama of multicultural animal fables mimed and declaimed along the Silk Road since the time of the Buddha.

His two books blend The Jatakas Tales, The Panchatantra and the brief (fourth century BCE) role of Alexander the Great's Hellenization legacy in "bringing the Aesopian tradition to North India and Central Asia".

Wood's Kalila and Dimna Vol 1 — Fables of Friendship and Betrayal was first published by Knopf in 1980 as Selected Fables of Bidpai with an Introduction by Doris Lessing (subsequently the 2007 Nobel Laureate).

His Kalila and Dimna Vol 2 — Fables of Conflict and Intrigue was first published by Medina in 2011,

Paperback versions of both titles remain available in Spanish and French locally or via his website. In English and other languages they exist in Kindle or 2nd-hand editions.

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A Cat May Look at a King & eight other stories too tell your cat was first published as a hardback in 1984 by East-West Publications.

An updated Zirac Press edition (subtitled & SEVEN other stories to tell your cat ) — including one NEW tale and four fresh illustrations — was published (paperback & Kindle) in August 2023.