Colin Thubron is Britain’s most distinguished travel writer, an award-winning author whose books cover Asia and Russia. He has also written a number of novels.

Colin Thubron grew up in London and worked briefly for Hutchinson and Macmillan, the publishing houses. He also had a short stint in the early 1960s making freelance television films in Turkey, Japan and Morocco. However, since 1967, when his first book, Mirror to Damascus, was published, he has worked full-time as a travel writer and novelist.

Two more books on the Middle East followed in quick succession – The Hills of Adonis: A Quest in Lebanon and Jerusalem. The 1970s were a bleak time for many travel writers and Thubron began publishing novels at this point. However he did find time for Journey into Cyprus – which he call’s his first mature travel book and the one in which he found his voice – and Istanbul.

Among the Russians describes his journey by car through western Russia during the Brezhnev era. Four years later Behind the Wall: A Journey through China won both the Hawthornden Prize and Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

In the early 1990s, Thubron travelled through the newly-independent central Asian republics, to see what differences the fall of the Soviet Union had on these nations for The Lost Heart of Asia. In Siberia was possibly his most arduous adventure, travelling 15,000 miles to eventually reach the Gulag archipelago. Finally, his most recent travel book, Shadow of the Silk Road, tells of his travels from China to Turkey.

In contrast to his travel writing, Thubron’s novels are deliberately set in confined spaces and explore the further reaches of the human mind. A Cruel Madness, set in a mental hospital, won him the Silver Pen award.

Colin Thubron’s travel writing includes:

• Mirror to Damascus
• The Hills of Adonis
• Jerusalem
• Journey into Cyprus
• Istanbul
• The Venetians
• The Ancient Mariners
• Among the Russians
• Where Nights Are Longest
• Fairies and Elves
• Behind the Wall
• The Silk Road
• The Lost Heart of Asia
• Samarkand
• In Siberia
• Shadow of the Silk Road