Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[Mott the Hoople]

It is indeed, he loved the Thames and London. By contrast Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski aka Joseph Conrad travelled to the Congo, made one return trip on the river, from Kinshasa to Kisangani, and decided that was enough for him. He was signed up for three years but he had seen enough and quit, never to return.

Oh bet he had seen more than enough to inspire his novel. The Belgian occupation of the Congo was pretty horrific.