This book is based on a single episode from the epic adventure Journey to the West, written in China about 400 years ago and is thought to be the work of Wu Cheng-en. If it was, he appears to have based the story on a series of marvellous legends that grew up around the Buddhist monk Tripitaka, who in the sixth century A.D. travelled thousands of miles from China to India to collect Buddhist scriptures for the Emperor of China. How Monkey got into Tripitaka's story, no one knows, but wherever he came from he soon snatched the limelight with his wily cunning, his cheekiness and his fabulous magic. Monkey and the Three Wizards is perhaps the best showcase for this fantastic magic, for it tells the story of how Monkey's powers are challenged by three powerful wizards. With amazing oneup-manship Monday outwits all three of them in a series of spectacular magic contests that explode one after the other like a string of Chinese firecrackers.
