SOURCE: Harman, Nicholas. “Vodka, Vodka Everywhere.” Spectator 283, no. 8931 (9 October 1999): 45.

In the following review, Harman examines Thubron's search for religious faith in In Siberia.

Under tsars and dictators alike, only Russians were allowed into Siberia, and for Russians the trip was a fate worse than death. Since we won the Cold War all that is changed, and Colin Thubron went there off his own bat. He too found Siberia horrible. It was hard to get around, hard to find somewhere to sleep, hard to find anyone to talk to, harder still to keep warm. But that was not his main problem [in In Siberia].

The myth of travel books is that they are written by people who have been somewhere and are keen to tell others about it. The present reality is that the book is often the motive for the journey, to boil the pots of those who...