Colin Thubron
Teoksen Shadow of the Silk Road tekijä
About the Author
Colin Thubron is the prizewinning, bestselling author of several travel books.
Sarjat
Tekijän teokset
Associated Works
The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos (2013) — Toimittaja; Johdanto, eräät painokset — 637 kappaletta
Onnellinen Arabia : tanskalainen retkikunta 1761-67 (1962) — Johdanto, eräät painokset — 317 kappaletta
The Company They Kept, Volume Two: Writers on Unforgettable Friendships (2011) — Avustaja — 20 kappaletta
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Virallinen nimi
- Thubron, Colin Gerald Dryden
- Syntymäaika
- 1939-06-14
- Sukupuoli
- male
- Kansalaisuus
- England
UK - Syntymäpaikka
- London, England, UK
- Asuinpaikat
- London, England, UK
- Koulutus
- Eton College
- Ammatit
- novelist
travel writer
documentary filmmaker - Suhteet
- Grazia, Margreta de (wife)
- Organisaatiot
- Royal Society of Literature
- Palkinnot ja kunnianosoitukset
- Order of the British Empire (Commander, 2006)
Royal Scottish Geographical Society Mungo Park Medal (2000)
Royal Society for Asian Affairs Lawrence of Arabia Medal (2001)
Fellow, Royal Society of Literature (1969) - Lyhyt elämäkerta
- Colin Thubron was born in London on 14 June 1939. Educated at Eton College, he worked briefly for the publishers Hutchinson and as a freelance television film-maker in Turkey, Japan and Morocco. His first book, Mirror to Damascus, was published in 1967. He continued to write about the Middle East in The Hills of Adonis: A Quest in Lebanon (1968) and Jerusalem (1969).
Among the Russians (1983) describes a journey he made by car through western Russia during the Brezhnev era. Behind the Wall: A Journey through China (1987) won both the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. The Lost Heart of Asia (1994) narrates his travels through the newly-independent central Asian republics, exploring the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union on the region. He returned to Russia for his most recent travel narrative, In Siberia (1999).
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1969, Colin Thubron is a regular contributor and reviewer for magazines and newspapers including The Times, the Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator. He lives in London. His latest travel books are Shadows of the Silk Road (2006), an account of his 7,000-mile journey along the route of the Silk Road; and To a Mountain in Tibet (2011), about his pilgrimage to sacred Mount Kailas.
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
Jerusalem (Time-Life Great Cities) Tekijä: Colin Thubron
A deep and moving, often eloquent, account of the author's effort to understand Jerusalem, one of the pivot points of the world, from ancient to modern. The author, Colin Thubron, is well known as an accomplished chronicler of places and times, and has a whole published book on Jerusalem, therefore this can be expected to be a deeply insightful and even authoritative work; his other volume in the Great Cities series, on another pivot point Constantinople (Istanbul), is equally evocative. His technique is to delve into the existing institutions and interact with the people involved on the ground, so one often gets what can be called a subaltern view; reinforced in this instance by the moody photographs so liberally provided. The most moving part of the account would appear to be the retracing of the path of Christ as he carries his cross to the place of his martyrdom; reflecting on this, it would appear that the first claim on this holiest of holy places should be with the Christians of the world, except that they themselves have apparently carved up the place of the crucifiction into a dozen separate fiefdoms among the warring sects. Now of course Israel hold this holy land. After having read the author's travel diaries across various countries and continents, one is awe-struck by the pluck and devotion he brings to bear on his subject, the amount of interaction he has been doing, and his intimate experiencing and deep knowledge of the human condition across the world.… (lisätietoja)
Another sterling publication from Time-Life Books in their Great Cities series, although this one is quite dated, 1978. But Colin Thubron's scintillating prose makes up to a great extent for its vintage; in keeping with his other works, he approaches the city from the ground level, so to speak, observing the condition and activities of the common people on the streets, rather that conferring with the captains of industry or the political bigwigs. So inevitably, the decrepit condition of the streets and buildings, the crumbling infrastructure, the challenges of living with poor levels of basic services, and the dogged spirit of the people, are what come to the attention. In a way, this probably represents more than anything the reaction of a Westerner (and a non-Muslim, to boot), as the nostalgia for the lost world of Christian Constantinople comes forth strongly. A Muslim writer would probably see in the massive mosques and palaces the confirmation of the glory of his faith; the Christian, however, feels the pang of the seat of Orthodox patriarch reduced to a vestige, the few remaining churches and synagogues with almost no attendance, the gradual emigration of the many ethnic communities like the Jews, the Armenians, the Greeks, and others, the relegation of Sancta Sophia to a museum (and now, with the Islamic revival, back to a mosque in use). In turn, ethnic Turks have come in from the Asian mainland, and the 'European' stock of the local populace (descenced largely from the Christian captives imported under the Ottoman regime) correspondingly decreases. Of course, 45 years down the timeline, one expects that the city would have been refurbished, with broad avenues and shining malls and high-rise buildings; we need to compare the current conditions.… (lisätietoja)
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