Bomb, book and compass : Joseph Needham and the great secrets of China

Bibliographic Information

Bomb, book and compass : Joseph Needham and the great secrets of China

Simon Winchester

Viking, 2008

  • : hbk

Other Title

The man who loved China

Available at  / 1 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

First published in the USA as The man who loved China by HarperCollins, 2008

Bibliography: p. [288]-297

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Before fate intervened, Joseph Needham was a distinguished biochemist at Cambridge University, married to a fellow scientist. In 1937 he was asked to supervise a young Chinese student named Lu Gwei-Djen, and in that moment began the two greatest love affairs of his life - Miss Lu, and China. Miss Lu inspired Needham to travel to China where he initially spent three dangerous years as a wartime diplomat. By the end of his life, Needham had become the pre-eminent China scholar of all time, a truly global figure, travelling endlessly and honoured by all. And in 1989, after a fifty-two year affair, he finally married the woman who had first inspired his passion. "Bomb, Book and Compass" is Simon Winchester at his best - at once a magnificent portrait of one man's remarkable life and a riveting exploration of the country that so engaged him.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

Page Top