The travels : Marco Polo

Marco Polo (1254-1324) spent the best part of 20 years globe-trotting from the Polar Sea to Java, from Zanzibar to Japan and probably travelled more extensively than anyone before him.

His travels began in 1271 when he accompanied his father and uncle on their second visit to China.

There he worked as a diplomat, undertaking numerous missions in the service of Kubilai Khan.A few years after his return to the West in 1295, Polo was captured as a prisoner of war in Genoa, and in prison met Rustichello of Pisa, a romance writer who became his enthusiastic collaborator in putting together this book.

Despite piracy, shipwreck, brigandage and wild beasts, Polo moved in a world of highly organized commerce.

He loved describing precious gems, spices and silks, but had an equally keen eye for exotic plants and especially birds; his grasp of history was rather less assured, but he was a superb human geographer.