Frances Wood (; born 1948) is an English librarian, sinologue and historian known for her writings on Chinese history, including

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...

, life in the Chinese treaty ports, and the First Emperor of China.

Biography

Wood was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1948, and went to

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1967, before going to Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied Chinese. She went to China to study Chinese at

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

in 1975–1976. Ksenia Kepping and Frances Wood

Wood joined the staff of the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

in 1977 as a junior curator, and later served as curator of Chinese collections until her retirement in 2013. She is also a member of the steering committee of the International Dunhuang Project, and the editor of the ''Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society''. She was also a governor of Ashmount Primary School for 20 years, relinquishing this post on the completion of her current term of office in July 2014. She has argued in her 1995 book, '' Did Marco Polo go to China?'', that the book of Marco Polo (''Il Milione'') is not the account of a single person, but is a collection of travellers' tales. This book's claims about Polo's travels has been heavily criticized by Stephen G. Haw, David O. Morgan and Peter Jackson as lacking basic academic rigor. In May 2012, she appeared on ''In Our Time'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, talking about Marco Polo; she appeared again in the 2015 episode on Chinese legalism. In December 2012 she appeared on the '' Christmas University Challenge'' special as a member of the Newnham College, Cambridge team.

Bibliography

* 1985 ''Chinese illustration''. British Library. * 1991 (with Norah M. Titley). ''Oriental Gardens''. British Library. * 1995 ''Did Marco Polo go to China?''. Secker & Warburg. * 1998 ''No Dogs and Not Many Chinese: Treaty Port Life in China, 1843-1943''. John Murray. * 2000 ''Hand-grenade practice in Peking: my part in the Cultural Revolution''. John Murray. * 2002 ''The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia''. University of California Press. * 2005 ''The Forbidden City''. British Museum Press. * 2007 ''The First Emperor of China''. Profile Books. * 2008 ''China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors''. St. Martin's Press. * 2009 ''The Lure of China: Writers from Marco Polo to J. G. Ballard''. Yale University Press. * 2010 (with Mark Barnard). ''The Diamond Sutra: The Story of the World's Earliest Dated Printed Book''. British Library. * 2017 ''Great Books of China''. Head of Zeus.

References

External links

Frances Wood
on Desert Island Discs (broadcast 5 December 2010)
Frances Wood on In Our Time discussing Marco Polo (broadcast 24 May 2012)

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 18 March 2016 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Frances Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Employees of the British Library English historians Living people British sinologists 1948 births