Charlie Walker - On Thin Ice

When a Siberian Trek Turned Into an Interrogation

Charlie Walker set out in early 2022 to cover 600 miles along Siberia's frozen rivers, in temperatures that fell to minus 50. He hadn't planned for a war. Days into the trek Russia invaded Ukraine, and the explorer who has covered over 60,000 miles on foot and by bicycle through some of the planet's most remote terrain found himself under surveillance, then arrested, then held.

That expedition became On Thin Ice, the Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society's third book after Through Sand & Snow and On Roads That Echo, and a BBC Radio 4 pick praised as a blend of travelogue and thriller. At St Edmund's Church, Walker talks through the frozen rivers, the questioning, and what it's actually like when a research trip turns into a detention.

His talks run on the details only someone who has spent years reading remote landscapes would think to include, not the polished version built for a lecture circuit.

Sunday 27 September 2026 · St Edmund's Church, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire CV36 4AT · Starts 2pm