"A splendid biography...it is gripping reading."--Economist. "No writer of historical fiction or Hollywood extravaganza could invent action half as exciting as are the rare adventures and painful peregrinations of this remarkable 13th-century Englishman."--The Times. Out of a 13th-century monastic chronicle came the seed of this incredible biography of the English-born personal envoy, interpreter, and spy in the house of the Tartar Khan. Pieced together by a Transylvanian writer who discovered the existence of this pivotal figure, it is a tale peppered with kings and warriors and mass murderers--and the mysterious man whose actions and diplomacy preceding the Tartar holocaust have left their indelible stamp on the face of Europe.