China's story is extraordinarily rich and dramatic. Now Michael Wood, one of the UK's pre-eminent historians, brings it all together in a major new one-volume history of China that is essential for reading for anyone who wants to understand its burgeoning role in our world today.China is the oldest living civilisation on earth, but its history is still surprisingly little known in the wider world. Michael Wood's sparkling narrative, which mingles the grand sweep with local and personal stories, woven together with the author's own travel journals, is an enthralling account of China's 4000-year-old tradition, taking in life stationed on theGreat Wallor inside theForbidden City. The story is enriched with the latest archaeological and documentary discoveries; correspondence and court cases going back to theQin and Han dynasties; family letters from soldiers in the real-lifeTerracotta Army; stories fromSilk Road merchantsand...