Bomb, book and compass : Joseph Needham and the great secrets of China
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Bomb, book and compass : Joseph Needham and the great secrets of China
Viking, 2008
- : hbk
- Other Title
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The man who loved China
Available at 1 libraries
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.
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