Travel writer Colin Thubron looks back on his adventures after 40 years spent criss-crossing the great landmass of Eurasia. For his latest book, Shadow of the Silk Road, he undertook a 7,000-mile trip from the Chinese tomb of the Yellow Emperor to the Mediterranean port of Antioch.
Colin Thubron
Colin Thubron
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Philip Dodd talks to one of Britain's most popular travel writers, Colin Thubron about his latest book 'The Shadow of the Silk Road' as well as exploring the various joys and pitfalls of serious travel writing .
Over the past forty years Thubron has produced a string of travel books that mainly cover the ground between China and the Middle East . His last book, In Siberia, was a hugely successful evocation of the cultural and environmental problems facing that vast region. Thubron has also written seven novels and his last, To the Last City, was nominated for the Booker Prize.
His most recent travels have taken him on a 7000 mile trip between North West China and the Mediterranean, along the ghostly route of the old Silk Road . He spends months travelling, in buses, trains and even by camel, to recount random encounters in an area of the world that is rapidly changing yet which remains largely unknown to Europeans.
'The Shadow of the Silk Road' is published by Chatto and Windus
