The culmination of a lifetime's field work and research, William Lindesay selects 50 artefacts to tell the story of the Great Wall from the 2nd century B.C. to the late-twentieth century.

Much like an excavation, from the survey beforehand to the foundations, the core, and eventually the ruins, Lindesay explores the majesty of the Wall through the objects it has inspired such as the appearance of the Wall in Ortelius' atlas of the world to the unexpected origins of 'wolf smoke', proliferation of the blunderbuss in the 15th century Great Wall theatre of war, and Kafka's classic short story At the Building of the Great Wall. E

Enhanced by stories of the discovery of the objects, and those of their modern-day keepers from curators to collectors, each artefact has been meticulously researched and recorded. The Great Wall in 50 Objects celebrates the history and the legacy of a world wonder.

William Lindesay OBE was born in Wallasey, UK, in 1956, and studied geography and geology at Liverpool University. His interest in the Great Wall of China started early and in 1987 he made what China's official Xinhua News Agency described as 'the most successful foreign exploration of the Great Wall'. As a Great Wall historian, Lindesay has published several accounts of his explorations and expeditions and initiated campaigns to preserve and protect China's most famous cultural landmark for which he was awarded an OBE in 2006. Lindesay currently lives in Beijing with his family.