Literature Matters: RSL 200 - Colin Thubron in conversation with Michael Palin

As part of our Literature Matters: RSL 200 series, join two of the most prolific and well-regarded travel writers in a conversation about why literature matters to them.
President Emeritus of the Royal Society of Literature, Colin Thubron, and RSL Fellow, Sir Michael Palin, will be live on stage at the British Library. Following Colin’s most recent adventure, tracing the Amur River for 3,000 miles, this intimate conversation between friends is sure to span continents, decades and literary forms.
Colin Thubron is an acclaimed travel writer and novelist. His first books were about the Middle East - Damascus, Lebanon and Cyprus. In 1982 he travelled by car into the Soviet Union, a journey he described in Among the Russians. From these early experiences developed his classic travel books: Behind the Wall, The Lost Heart of Asia, In Siberia, Shadow of the Silk Road and To a Mountain in Tibet. Colin’s latest book, The Amur River, Between Russia and China, was published by Chatto & Windus in September 2021. Colin was elected President of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010, and became President Emeritus in 2017. In 2020, he was named an RSL Companion of Literature.
Michael Palin is the author of ten travel books, two novels, and a non-fiction work. Michael’s work has taken him across the globe, from the dunes of the Sahara to the heights of the Himalayas, and retracing the steps of Ernest Hemingway across three continents. He has written and performed in the Monty Python series, Ripping Yarns and numerous travel documentaries, including Around the World in Eighty Days, Pole to Pole and Michael Palin in North Korea. Michael received a BAFTA Academy Fellowship award in 2013. His archive is housed at the British Library.

[@birdance]

This is a briliant combination, mr Palins humour and Colins walking history might. a good duo to go anywhere

[@tessalister1226]

Brilliant, modest man. Superb writer.

[@chrisccummins]

I am just reading "Journey Into Cyprus" and I adore it. It is both incredibly erudite and lots of fun. I also enjoyed his Silk Road book - he seems a true adventurer who has a not just great curiosity but warmth for the people he meets.

[@mauricegartshore9105]

Thubron is a wonderful writer. I'm reading 'In Siberia' in which he has about a thousand ways of describing nothingness.

[@frankdsouza2425]

A really nice guy, quite apart from a "can't put down" author. I am referring to Thubron, whom I have had the thrill of meeting, though Palin, whom I have not met, seems to be cut from the same cloth. Not all public figures are not when you meet them, as amiable as their outward personae.

[@hannahjasmineactress]

I've watched Sir Michael for a long time. I've heard people complain about real life interactions with him and speculate reasons why, like he's only pretending to be nice because his dad wasn't or whatever. But I don't believe that. I always thought he had a big performer ego. He loves to keep the show going and have his moment on stage, and he's jealous of other performers. According to his diary, Robin Williams was one of them. But I think he's still nice. Since actors meet thousands of people every year because of their profession (not stage audience or fans, I mean in-person introductions in social settings), they are quite notorious for yearning to retreat from people. That's the same for Sir Michael; he loves to talk to people and be social, but he's also keen to not doing so. I guess he loved people when he traveled because he was meeting people who didn't know him.