Colin Thubron

Shadow of the Silk Road

  • Shadow of the Silk Road

  • Colin Thurbon’s beautiful prose unfolds along the Silk Road, unearthing a richly layered past on his most ambitious journey.

    On buses, donkey carts, trains, jeeps and camels, Colin Thubron traces the drifts of the first great trade route out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey. A magnificent account of an ancient world in modern ferment, Thubron covers over 7000 miles in eight months enduring a near-miss with a drunk-driver, incarceration in a Chinese cell, and undergoing root canal treatment without anaesthetic, along the way.

    VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

Shadow of the Silk Road
Shadow of the Silk Road
Colin Thubron
Night of Fire
Night of Fire
Colin Thubron
Falling
Falling
Colin Thubron
Journey Into Cyprus
Journey Into Cyprus
Colin Thubron
To a Mountain in Tibet
To a Mountain in Tibet
Colin Thubron
Distance
Distance
Colin Thubron
The Hills Of Adonis
The Hills Of Adonis
Colin Thubron
Mirror To Damascus
Mirror To Damascus
Colin Thubron
Marco Polo Travels
Marco Polo Travels
In Siberia
In Siberia
Colin Thubron
A Cruel Madness
A Cruel Madness
Colin Thubron
Behind The Wall
Behind The Wall
Colin Thubron
Among The Russians
Among The Russians
Colin Thubron
The Lost Heart Of Asia
The Lost Heart Of Asia
Colin Thubron
To The Last City
To The Last City
Colin Thubron
Turning Back The Sun
Turning Back The Sun
Colin Thubron
Emperor
Emperor
Colin Thubron
Vintage Voyages

Vintage Voyages

10 Books

Colin Thubron is an acknowledged master of travel writing, and the winner of many prizes and awards. His first writing was about the Middle East - Damascus, Lebanon and Cyprus. In 1982 he travelled into the Soviet Union in an ancient Morris Marina, pursued by the KGB, a journey he recorded in Among the Russians. From these early experiences developed his classic travel books: Behind the Wall (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Award), The Lost Heart of Asia, In Siberia (Prix Bouvier) and Shadow of the Silk Road. His most recent book is To a Mountain in Tibet (all available in Vintage). Colin Thubron was President of the Royal Society of Literature from 2010 to 2017.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.