Jonathan Clements

"Marco Polo (1254-1324) ... the son of a Venetian merchant family, left Europe on a trading mission with his father and uncle in 1271. The man who arrived back in Italy a generation later in 1295 was unrecognisable, but soon accepted as Marco by his relatives when he showed them the jewels he had brought back from the east. Captured in a later battle, he was briefly imprisoned, and dictated his memoirs to his cellmate Rustichello, a novelist who may have embellished the original text with some asides of his own. The result was A Description of the World , better known as Travels , a detailed account of Polo's wandering, much of which seems to parallel the expeditions of Mongol armies, in China, Burma and Indonesia. Some have argued that his claims were largely falsified, that he merely stayed for a while in Western Asia, and assembled his book with stories he had heard from others. The records of the Chinese Yuan dynasty do not mention a Marco Polo at all (and they should), and there are some suspicious omissions from Polo's text - no tea, no foot-binding, no mention of Chinese printing, or even of the Great Wall. Did Polo even go to China? This new biography will try to answer some of the questions connected with the perpetually fascinating adventurer of the 13th century"--Publisher's description.

From the Publisher: Bigger and better! Our first edition rocked the anime world with its in-depth entries on anime famous and obscure and its superb index/film finder. Now this fantastic book is 40 percent larger-with all-new entries on hundreds of anime released after 2001, updates on older entries, and over fifty thousand words on anime creators (like Tezuka and Otomo) and genres ("Early Anime," "Science Fiction and Robots," etc.). An absolute must-have for every anime shelf! "If I only had space on my overcrowded shelf for one book on anime, this would be it. If I had no space on my shelf I'd select two books at random and drop them into the bin, just to make room it's that indispensable." Paul Jacques, Anime on DVD". While you may not agree with their opinions on a given anime, they are informative and entertaining, especially when skewering a really bad anime." Frames Per Second.

Provides a detailed view of the Chinese emperor Ch'in Shih-huang-ti, and discusses how the discovery of an entire larger-than-life ceramic army buried with him, reveals many facts about ancient China.

'From the Fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord.' Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, the Vikings surged from their Scandinavian homeland to trade, raid and invade along the coasts of Europe. Their influence and expeditions extended from Newfoundland to Baghdad, their battles were as far-flung as Africa and the Arctic. But were they great seafarers or desperate outcasts, noble heathens or oafish pirates, the last pagans or the first of the modern Europeans? This concise study puts medieval chronicles, Norse sagas and Muslim accounts alongside more recent research into r.

This little book contains pithy poems, words of wisdom and deep thoughts from three thousand years of history. Learn the eight Confucian virtures, and more proverbs, idioms and sayings than are numbered in the sands. -- Back cover

Sent to Lisbon and Morocco, where a British studio is creating a silent film version of "The Pirates of Penzance," Mary Russell investigates a series of crimes targeting the production and confronts a high-stakes situation when actual pirates orchestrate a hostage situation.

Gustaf Mannerheim was one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century. As a young Finnish officer in Russian service he witnessed the coronation of the last Tsar and was both reprimanded for his foolishness and decorated for his bravery in the Russo-Japanese war. He spent two years undercover in Asia as an agent in the 'Great Game', posing as a Swedish anthropologist. Crossing China on horseback, he stopped en route to teach the 13th Dalai Lama how to shoot a pistol and spied on the Japanese navy. Having escaped the Bolsheviks by the skin of his teeth in 1917, he led the anti-Russian forces in the local revolt and civil war and later, during Finland's darkest hour, he led the defence of his country against the impossible odds of the Winter War. In this, the first major English language biography of Mannerheim for a decade, Jonathan Clements brings new material to light on Mannerheim's time in Manchuria, China and Japan. The result is a fascinating appraisal of an adventurer and explorer who would go on to forge a new nation.

"Recounts the fascinating and tumultuous history of the city, from the days when Peking Man roamed its fertile plains until the present day, and explores unique features such as Tiananmen Square, its imperial lakes, princely mansions and art districts ... Jaivin also provides an eclectic mix of tips for the traveller, from where to shop for Chinese musical instruments to the wonders of the Police Museum and how to party like you're from Vladivostok"--From publisher description.