Olivier Voisin, 38, died in a hospital in the city of Antakya in Turkey where he had been treated for injuries sustained in the Syrian province of Idlib on 21 February.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

Salim Idris said by phone from Antakya, Turkey.

CNN: Syrian TV: Israeli rockets target Damascus suburb

Mr Thubron spent eight months travelling the 11, 300 kilometres (7, 000 miles) of the old Silk Road from Xian in the heart of China to Antioch (Antakya) in Turkey and, although he scrupulously admits in a note that his trip was broken by fighting in northern Afghanistan and that he was obliged to continue the following year, this interruption does not disrupt the flow of his narrative.

ECONOMIST: Travel writing