Gavin Menzies, a former Royal Navy submarine commander, is the author of the controversial book 1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered the World. His 1421 theory asserts that ships from the fleet of Chinese admiral Zheng He travelled to the Americas prior to Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1492, a claim considered by most commentators to be baseless in fact.

Further reading

• Gavin Menzies, 1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered the World, Morrow/Avon, 2003, hardcover 576 pages, ISBN 0060537639

External links

• Official Web site of the book
• Review of 1421 by a science editor at the New York Times
• A critical view of Menzies' story