The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville

Description

His book about that voyage, The Travels, was heralded as the most important book of the Middles Ages as Mandeville claimed his voyage proved it was possible to circumnavigate the globe. In the nineteenth century sceptics questioned his voyage, they even doubted he had left England. The Riddle and The Knight sets out to discover whether Mandeville really could have made his voyage or whether, as is claimed, The Travels was a work of imaginative fiction. Bestselling historian Giles Milton unearths clues about the journey and reveals that The Travels is built upon a series of riddles which have, until now, remained unsolved.

Giles Milton is a writer and journalist. He has contributed articles for most of the British national newspapers as well as many foreign publications and specialises in the history of travel and exploration. In the course of his researches, he has travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East.

'Like Giles Milton's previous book,... Big Chief Elizabeth is a cracking read, a successful attempt at popular history' Evening Standard; 'Milton is a great storyteller... he sets about filling in the historical gaps with relish, using his considerable imagination to conjure mood from dry parchment' Sunday Express; 'Grippingly told true adventure story' Daily Mail; 'Milton... draws a vivid picture of the terrible hardships the settlers endured' The Times; 'Milton knits together the most vivid anecdotes and descriptions from a very colourful literature of exploration and colonization, and anyone wanting easy access to them has it here'. Times Literary Supplement