Wood joined the staff of the British Library in London in 1977 as a junior curator, and later served as curator of Chinese collections until her retirement in 2013.[3][4] She is also a member of the steering committee of the International Dunhuang Project,[5] and the editor of the Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society.[3] She was also a governor of Ashmount Primary School for 20 years, relinquishing this post on the completion of her current term of office in July 2014.
She has argued in her 1995 book, Did Marco Polo go to China?, that the book of Marco Polo (Il Milione) is not the account of a single person, but is a collection of travellers' tales. This book's claims about Polo's travels has been heavily criticized by Stephen G. Haw, David O. Morgan and Peter Jackson as lacking basic academic rigor.
^ a bBeth McKillop; Ursula Sims-Williams (13 June 2013). "Asian and African studies blog : Frances Wood, Curator of Chinese Collections". British Library. Retrieved 12 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Hutton, Alice (6 June 2013). "Leading academic Dr Frances Wood retires with warning: 'British Library should forget about duvets in its gift shop – and get back to research'". Camden New Journal. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014.