I got a beautiful edition of The Travels by Marco Polo.

No, that's right, Marco Polo isn't just a game you play in a swimming pool, he was a real person and everything!

What isn't completely clear is whether this Venetian merchant simply wrote down gossip about the distant land he was clearly enchanted by, or if he did indeed (as he claimed), travel there and witness and partake what appears to be a staggering period of ancient oriental history before writing his account whilst in prison in Genoa.

His accounts are extraordinary. I can't stress this enough, some of the descriptions he gives are staggering and literally unbelievable, and it is for this reason (I believe), that many doubted him. He was adamant though.

"I have not told half of what I saw." -- Maro Polo on his death bed when asked to retract some of his incredible accounts

He claims to have worked as a Government official and to be a close ally, servant and sometimes friend of Kublai Khan and so his accounts of court life and the riches of Khan's territories are impressive and awe-inspiring.

You might have guessed I'm familiar with the work. I mentioned to my Santa that I am a fan of historical travel works and this was the book that piqued my interest. I held a small copy of the Penguin Great Ideas paperback which first caught my attention. I lent my copy (from my full set of those books) to somebody which was never returned. I had planned to source another finer replacement, and whilst I have recently found a used edition which is OK, it is perhaps too delicate to be read and the binding is not in great condition, so I wanted a fine edition I could actually read.

This is not a book you want to read on an e-Reader. This is ultimate, cup of tea and a comfortable corner with a solid book in your hand material.

My Santa has delivered in spades here. This is the Penguin Clothbound Classic edition and it is beautiful. I love these clothbound editions, and if I had known Maro Polo's Travels was available in it, I would have bought it long ago, so my Santa has read me like a book (pun intended), and supplied me with something truly lovely.

I may even convince my other half now that we have this we may as well complete a wider collection in the same series! :-)

If you have never read this book, trust me, it will be the finest non-fiction/possible-fiction historical travel book you will ever read.

I can't stress how happy I am with this gift. Santa: may your life be as full of riches as Polo's was.