1421 : " The Year China Discovered the World " (Paperback)

Using a mixture of medieval maps and manuscripts, an in-depth and practical maritime knowledge, botanical evidence and sound reasoning, Menzies puts forward his theory that China, not Europe, discovered America, Australia, and the rest of the world - decades before Europeans set sail for distant seas.

In a rich and descriptive style, Menzies tells of the lives of the Emperor Zhu Di, who ordered the voyages of exploration, and of Admiral Zheng He, his friend and chief eunuch. He goes on to describes the huge treasure fleets and tracks their course across the face of the globe. At each landfall, Menzies gives evidence of the Chinese presence, delving into the folklore of the area's inhabitants and noting the presence of Asian plants and chickens far from China's shores, predating the first Europeans.

This book is a must for anyone interested in keeping up to date with the most recent historical discoveries. In one fell swoop, Menzies has turned the old idea that Europeans first discovered America and circumnavigated the globe on its head. The history books will have to re-written!

1421 is written in an enjoyable style and the author's modesty about his groundbreaking work makes the reader warm to him immediately. Not only are the journeys of the Chinese ships recounted but also the author's own travels in their wake, as he flies around the world seeking evidence of the voyages and advice from a number of experts. This gives the book a double flavour of adventure that makes it hard to put down. An interesting and well-written read.

Menzies has apparently put a lifetime of painstaking research into his book, not only retracing the great navigators in their wake when he was a British naval commander, (of which there is a wonderful cornucopia of amusing anecdotes to be told,) but also sharing the mentality of the Chinese explorers, going into unknown and inhospitable territories, what with his experiences in helming some of the first nuclear submarines to prowl the tense seas.

The book is subsequently a joy to read. Being a mariner myself, with a penchant for wreck diving, I was delighted to read an in depth study into the mysterious Bimini Road which has been much discussed in my circles over the years. The
Road gained great notoriety through the interesting theorising of Dr. David Zink, who professed it to be an ancient temple, leading to the lost city of Atlantis. Menzies however, has come up with a much more plausible idea, that will, I hope, be further investigated in the near future.

The essence of '1421: The Year China Discovered The World', is Menzies' schoolboy-like excitement that is relayed constantly throughout the book, causing him many a sleepless night and frantic pacing up and down library halls. The precision, care, and grey hairs that have evidently been invested into his book cannot be underestimated.

Moreover, the book has been designed for ease of accessibility. It is approachable to both the curious amateur, and the skilled academic, with appendices of hard evidence and technical detail for the trained scholar in the library, and witty prose and glorious colour photographs and diagrams for those more suited to a night in with a mug of Horlicks. Nonetheless what remains a constant for all who will read the book is the sense of adventure, in that by just partaking in the reading of the book, one is playing a part in the uncovering of one of the worlds' great mysteries.

To those sceptics out there who believe that Columbus and his entourage were and still are the greatest maritime pioneers to sail the high seas, I say stop, think, and buy a new pair of glasses! The lines of evidence that say otherwise are overwhelming, and even though they may even suggest that Zheng He's great voyages were only the tip of the iceberg, Menzies deserves much credit in what has obviously been a very bold step in publishing history, voicing theories that will no doubt meet some opposition. The author has undoubtedly opened a can of worms, that will irk those who have structured their studies around the fact that the Europeans were the greatest navigators of their times. No doubt can be cast on the fact that they did excel in their fields in some way, however, we must now, with the overwhelming and exciting revelations of '1421 : The Year China Discovered The World', pay homage to the great Chinese explorers of the fifteenth century, and yet again open the world history books for further scrutiny.

I now have no doubt as to what Santa's sack will be full of this year!