Colin Thubron is one of the leading travel writers and features in The Times list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Born in London in 1939 and educated at Eton College, before becoming a writer Thubron worked for five years in publishing in London and New York, and made independent documentary films in Turkey, Japan and Morocco. Behind the Wall: A Journey through China Oltre la muraglia (Un viaggio in Cina, Ponte alle Grazie 2001) won him the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Award. Thubron lives in London and contributes to The Times, The Times Literary Supplement and The Spectator. He is a Fellow and, as of 2010, President of the Royal Society of Literature. His extraordinarily well-researched travel books combine erudition and the sheer pleasure of discovery. They include: In Siberia (2000), Verso l’ultima città (2002), Ombre sulla Via della Seta (2006), Il cuore perduto dell’Asia (2007), Verso la montagna sacra (2011), all published in Italian by Ponte alle Grazie.