Charlie Walker's new travelogue, On Thin Ice, recounts a gruelling trek across frozen Siberia that began in February 2022, just as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The book's significance lies less in the physical hardship of the journey than in its unusual vantage point: Walker becomes one of the last Western tourists able to gather ordinary Russians' views on the war, offering a rare, ground-level snapshot of public opinion in a country where dissent is heavily suppressed.

Walker set out to trek roughly a thousand miles north through temperatures as low as -50C, following the frozen river Lena and then the Laptev Sea to the town of Tiksi. Despite Foreign Office advice against travel to Russia, he pressed on, later reasoning that Yakutsk was closer to Alaska than to Kyiv. Along the way he encountered lorry drivers, indigenous Sakha communities and remote herders, sharing local delicacies such as horse-blood sausage and reindeer spine, while many of those he met repeated Kremlin narratives, describing Ukraine as run by "Nazis" or rightfully belonging to Russia. The review notes this is Walker's third travelogue, following previous expeditions including a 43,000-mile bicycle ride and a solo walk across the Gobi desert.