Published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of his historic transatlantic voyage, this book looks at the life and adventures of Christopher Columbus. Who was Columbus? Was he a great and courageous master-mariner who kept faith with his destiny and eventually confounded his critics, or a half-crazy zealot who ignored the truth? Would he have led his fleet to certain death - if America hadn't happened to be in the way? With the use of a series of friezes, the book sets out to show the greatness, and the folly, that led to his arrival on the shores of the New World. Oliver Postgate is the creator of children's characters such as Noggin the Nog, Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine.