The Riddle and the Knight by Giles Milton

[King Bob]

This is about Sir John Mandeville, author of a medieval travel book that was much more popular at the time than Marco Polo's. It's the history + travel thing, where the author mixes history with his experiences (I think perhaps started by Bruce Chatwin, with The Songlines but I may be wrong). It was quite entertaining; he's a good writer and keeps the story moving along. (His Big Chief Elizabeth about the Virginia colony is also quite good.) He only travels the Western (first) half of Mandeville's book, concluding that the Eastern part is just a pastiche of earlier sources.

If you're interested in medieval history or have read Mandeville then worth the read.