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In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"—New York Times Book Review) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.

No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair.

He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before the rest of the world. His thrilling and dangerous journeys, vividly recreated by Winchester, took him across war-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese people.

After the war, Needham was determined to tell the world what he had discovered, and began writing his majestic Science and Civilisation in China, describing the country's long and astonishing history of invention and technology. By the time he died, he had produced, essentially single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever.

Both epic and intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China through Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable tale of what makes men, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great—related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.

Average Customer Rating:

a formula book

Customer Rating:

The problem with this book is that Simon Winchester is grinding them out of the "mill" now. When an author produces books beyond a certain rate, they tend to become formulaic and by-the-numbers. Everything that was fresh in "the professor and the madman" has become a stale formula in this book. Its all assembly-line craft and no passion. If you have never read one of his books, I would recommend it. Its not his best, but its respectable. But otherwise.....We don't need any more formula books about european eccentrics who made some great contribution that nobody has ever heard of.

Excellent Story	Customer Rating:
A fantastic story about a man and his passion for life and work and about a country so far ahead yet so far behind. I am no historical buff but this (audio) book made me keep wanting to get into my car so that I could hear more. The storyteller is good to listen to and the images are real.

Superbly rearched and written tribute to a great man	Customer Rating:
I read this book cover to cover in one sitting on a long flight to China. The book is well researched, superbly written, and all together a loving tribute to Joseph Needham, who came alive between the covers. Highly recommended to anyone.

China	Customer Rating:
Very great read. I could not put it down. It certainly changed my view of Chinese history and innovation.

China and Cambridge	Customer Rating:
A very readable and excellently researched and written account of the life, adventures and discoveries of the Cambridge don, Joseph Needham