BOOKS
Thousand Revolutions
A story of mud and metamorphosis, Thousand Revolutions traces a singular journey through grief with the steady rotation of the potter’s wheel and the dizzying heights of St Petersburg’s rooftops. Part love letter to Russia’s cultural capital, part meditation on transformation, this is an unrestrained, humane, optimistic and sometimes humorous account of acceptance - of how making something useful, from mud, can bring unexpected strength, hope and ultimately beauty.
“This is travel writing, philosophy and memoir fused into one compelling narrative arc. Wheeler’s voice carries the authority of lived experience without ever preaching.”
Chris Riches, The Daily Express
“A work of rare emotional intelligence, unafraid of darkness the prose is spare, luminous and quietly devastating.”
Richard Moriarty, The Sun
One Steppe Beyond: Across Russia in a VW Camper
A chance job offer at a timber yard in Estonia gives Thom and his old pal Jo a taste for the unknown. So when Uncle Tony asks them to drive to Vladivostok for another job, they can't think of a good reason why not. The result is a classic caper across the former Soviet Union in Max, a rusty old VW camper. Knowing little of the language or the geography ahead, they embark on probably the longest commute ever, encountering corrupt officials, film star mechanics and over-friendly gangsters. Far off the tourist trail, they bear witness to the collapse of one nation and the birth of a new one during the free-for-all that was Russia in the nineties.
The Way a River Went: Following the Volga Through the Heart of Russia
Thom Wheeler is not a man to be put off by the prospect of an uncharted, impractical or downright dangerous journey. Having accidentally introduced his old school friend Vicky to Dmitry, the Russian love of her life, at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Thom decides to travel to their wedding in Astrakhan in the most obvious and straightforward way: by following the Volga river, from its source over 1,000 miles inland, all the way to the Caspian Sea and a party to remember..