Colin Gerald Dryden Thubron (born 14 June 1939) is a British travel writer and novelist. In 2008, The Times ranked him among the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Times, The Times Literary Supplement and The New York Times. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Thubron was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours. He is a Fellow and, between 2009 and 2017, was President of the Royal Society of Literature.
Contents
Early years
Thubron is the son of Brigadier Gerald Thubron and of Evelyn (née Dryden), a collateral descendant of the poet John Dryden and of Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse Code. Thubron was born in London, England, and was educated at Eton College. Before becoming a writer, he worked for five years in publishing in London and New York City, and made independent documentary films that were shown on BBC television. He is married to the Shakespeare scholar Margreta de Grazia.
The Middle East
Thubron's first travel book, Mirror to Damascus, was published in 1967, the first such book on the city for a century. It was followed the next year by The Hills of Adonis: A Quest in Lebanon, a lyrical account of a journey through the country, pre-civil war, and the next year by Jerusalem. While starting a parallel career as a novelist, he completed a travel book on Cyprus, Journey into Cyprus, in 1974, just before Turkey invaded the island.
Russia and the Far East
In 1981, during the Brezhnev era, Thubron broke with his earlier work (on cities and small countries) and travelled by car into the Soviet Union, a journey recorded in Among the Russians. This was followed in 1987 by Behind the Wall: A Journey Through China (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award), and in 1994 by The Lost Heart of Asia, the record of a journey through the newly independent nations of Central Asia.
In 1999, his book In Siberia (Prix Bouvier, France), an exploration of the farthest reaches of the ex-Soviet Union, was published. In an episode of the BBC Radio 4 programme Bookclub in 2018, Thubron discussed the book with the presenter James Naughtie and answered questions from the audience. His 2007 book Shadow of the Silk Road describes a 7,000-mile journey from China to the Mediterranean encompassing cultures in which Thubron has been particularly interested: Islam, China, the former Soviet Union, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. His latest work is The Amur River: Between Russia and China (2021).
Writing
Most of Thubron's novels are notably different from his travel books. Several describe settings of enforced immobility: a psychiatric hospital, a prison, an amnesiac's mind. Notable among them are Emperor (1978), a study of the conversion of Constantine, A Cruel Madness (winner of the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award), and Falling (1989). Others, however, use travel or a fictional abroad: Turning Back the Sun (1991) and an imaginary journey to Vilcabamba, Peru, in To the Last City (2002), long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. It has been described as a "Heart of Darkness narrative" in a "Marquezian setting". His 2016 novel, Night of Fire, is his most ambitious yet: a multi-layered study of time and memory, which several reviewers named his masterpiece.
Thubron says that he was influenced by Palgrave's Golden Treasury as a schoolboy, and was initially inspired by the travel writing of Patrick Leigh Fermor, Jan Morris and Freya Stark. Thubron admires the English novelist William Golding and chose Victor Gollancz's anthology A Year of Grace (1950) as his book for Desert Island Discs.
Travel writing
Mirror to Damascus – Heinemann, 1967
The Hills of Adonis: A Quest in Lebanon – Heinemann, 1968
Jerusalem – Heinemann, 1969
Journey into Cyprus – Heinemann, 1975
Jerusalem – Time-Life, 1976
Istanbul – Time-Life, 1978
The Venetians – Time-Life, 1980
The Ancient Mariners – Time-Life, 1981
The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden – Hamish Hamilton, 1982
Among the Russians – Heinemann, 1983
Where Nights Are Longest: Travels by Car Through Western Russia – Atlantic Monthly Press, 1984
Behind the Wall: A Journey through China – Heinemann, 1987
The Silk Road: Beyond the Celestial Kingdom – Simon & Schuster, 1989
The Lost Heart of Asia – Heinemann, 1994
In Siberia – Chatto & Windus, 1999
Shadow of the Silk Road, Chatto & Windus, 2006
To a Mountain in Tibet, Chatto & Windus, 2011
The Amur River: Between Russia and China, Chatto & Windus, 2021
Forewords:
Novels
The God in the Mountain – Heinemann, 1977
Emperor – Heinemann, 1978
A Cruel Madness – Heinemann, 1984
Falling – Heinemann, 1989
Turning Back the Sun – Heinemann, 1991
Distance – Heinemann, 1996
To the Last City – Chatto & Windus, 2002
Night of Fire – Chatto & Windus, 2016
Radio adaptations, stage and television
Emperor – BBC Radio 4, September 1984, with Martin Jarvis as Constantine and Juliet Stevenson as Fausta.
Great Journeys: The Silk Road – BBC 2 Television, presenter, 1989
The Prince of the Pagodas – ballet scenario, the Royal Opera House, 1989, choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan
A Cruel Madness – BBC Radio 4, May 1992, with Robert Glenister as Pashley and Harriet Walter as Sophia
The South Bank Show – Time seen as a Road, on Colin Thubron, ITV television, 1992
Prizes and awards
1967: Book Society Choice, Mirror to Damascus
1969: Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
1985: PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, A Cruel Madness
1988: Hawthornden Prize, Behind the Wall: A journey through China
1988: Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, Behind the Wall: A Journey through China
1991: Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society
2000: Mungo Park Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society
2001: Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs
2002: Hon.D Lit University of Warwick
2003–9: Vice-president, The Royal Society of Literature
2007: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), New Year's Honours
2008: Society of Authors Travel Award
2009–2017: President, The Royal Society of Literature
2010: Prix Bouvier, France, In Siberia
2011: Ness Award of the Royal Geographical Society
2014: International Prize, Spanish Geographical Society
2019: Edward Stanford Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing Award