The epic journey of our hero Mikhail Strogoff has inspired some real-life travellers to follow in his footsteps across the vastness of Russia, recording their journeys in words and pictures. We’re collecting such books at the moment as part of the background and inspiration for our art director’s creative work, and thought you might like a glimpse of two particularly beautiful books about  such journeys: photographer Olivier Sprung’s magnificent illustrated book, Michel Strogoff de Moscou a Irkoutsk(Romain Pages Editions, France) which features extracts from Jules Verne’s novel alongside gorgeous photographs of the various places; and Geo Magazine’s fabulous coffee-table book, Voyage en Russie sur les traces de Michel Strogoff, with text by journalist Remy Michel and beautiful photographs by Olivier Martel. Even if you don’t read French, the books are worth looking at for the sake of the magnificent photographs which illustrate the extraordinary natural, architectural and human diversity and colour of Russia even today.