REVIEW: Russia. Mongolia. Motorcycle. Me.
“…it is a minor masterpiece, one of the best short travelogues I know... and short ones are always the best.
First of all you are elegiac in praise of motorbikes, not my favourite vehicle, which I now see in a new light.
You brilliantly fuse the personal and the practical, the immediate and the eternal. I admire your spare but always pertinent use of quotations. There is enough of you and not too much. The pictures are excellent.
Above all, unlike so many such travel books, every page, every encounter, is utterly plausible. You almost make me want to follow in your footsteps, even if you don't quite answer your own question, For God's sake why? I think I prefer deja vu to your jamais vu and a "pummelling by random thoughts on time and space". I like your reflections on Pascal.”
Simon Jenkins
Guardian Columnist
Editor: Times ’92 – ‘98
Evening Standard ’76 – ‘78