SOURCE: Thubron, Colin, and Independent Sunday. Independent Sunday (10 October 1999): 2.

In the following interview, Thubron discusses his body of work and his career as a travel writer.

It almost comes as a shock to discover that Colin Thubron is a real traveller. From his writings, it is possible to imagine a kind of poetic aristocrat floating across continents, absorbing beauty and wisdom effortlessly from clouds and landscapes. In fact, he is the ultimate off-the-beaten-track backpacker.

“When I'm researching for a book, I'm not fussed about comfort,” Thubron explains when I ask him how he sustains himself on his journeys. Now 60, he recently spent four months travelling alone through the wildernesses of Siberia [for his book In Siberia], unearthing accommodation and transport possibilities in a land covered by no guidebook. “When you travel out of fascination, of course you push yourself,” he says. “Your own comforts drop away. What depresses...