Today's podcast features Simon Winchester and Penguin's own grandparents, Tony Lacey and Eleo Gordon
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About this podcast
For information about any of the authors and books featured in these podcasts, plus features, interviews and news on the best in UK fiction and non-fiction, visit Penguin Books.
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. He established himself as
the pre-eminent China scholar of all time, firm in his belief that
China would one day achieve world prominence. By the end of his life,
Needham had become a truly global figure, travelling endlessly and
honoured by all - though banned from America because of his politics.
And in 1989, after a fifty-two year affair, he finally married the
woman who had first inspired his passion. The Magnificent Barbarian 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.
The Really Useful Grandparents' Book is the perfect book to share with
your grandchildren and help you plan your time with them. Packed with
information on the kinds of things a child will want to know about,
from the world's most dangerous animals to Mount Everest and Alexander
the Great, it also shows how together you can plan a camp in your
garden, learn to do cross-stitch or make pop-up cards, do some basic
carpentry, make your own fish fingers, play racing demon or learn
chess, write a rap or a poem, make a curiosity box, decorate the table,
create a special playlist on your iPod and many other activities which
will truly enhance your relationship with your grandchild and leave
both of you the richer for it.
Buy the Book
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