Michael Pugh: Riding Through War and Peace

It's hard not to love an author whose bio reads, "Michael ... spent six years as a partner for Hogan Lovells in Moscow before leaving by horse."In summer 2014, after the Russian seizure of Crimea, Michael Pugh decides it's time to leave the splendour of his life as an expat lawyer in Moscow.

But he chooses to leave the slow way, travelling west on horseback through a bucolic Russian landscape of wildflower meadows, visiting monasteries, Tolstoyan battle sites and forgotten aristocratic estates.Arriving in Belarus, he swaps his Kabardin steed Parliament for Marlboro, a stallion with a nose for adventure.

At midsummer he experiences fire, dancing and song at the festival of Kupala, and, riding on, he explores the vanished lives of the Poles and the Jews.

Despite dark warnings about Ukraine, Michael finds there a welcoming people, fiercely proud to defend their beautiful country from Russia.

Finally, he navigates the complex legacy of Austria-Hungary in Romania.Throughout his journey is lifted by the antics of horses and guides, the kindness of strangers and friends and great quantities of delicious food and fiery moonshine.Likened to Patrick Leigh Fermor, Pugh is a lawyer, academic and founder of the Llangwm Literary Festival.

He first visited Moscow as a student in 1992.