Book description
An essential history of a taste that shaped the world.
Spices: for centuries the staple of cuisine, remedies and ritual, they
have commanded the highest of prices. To this day, saffron is, per
ounce, one of our most expensive commodities. For their sake, fortunes
have been made and lost and new worlds discovered. Astoundingly, in the
17th-century more people died for the sake of cloves than in all the
European dynastic wars of the period.
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs depict a merchant fleet sailing to the
Horn of Africa and returning with a priceless cargo of cinnamon. Only
the story of mankind's infatuation with precious metals can rival the
story of spice; and only the history of silver and gold rivals spice for
its improbable and extraordinary combination of discovery and conquest,
greed and violence. 'Epic and evocative…as readable as it is exotic.' Independent
'Splendid. Erudite, urbane and original. An appetising debut.' SundayTelegraph
'Sumptuous. Turner is equally at ease in antiquity and the Middle
Ages.' Guardian Formerly a MacArthur Foundation Research Fellow of
Exeter College, Oxford, and a Rhodes Scholar, Jack Turner has been cook,
farmhand, and photographer, and has lived and travelled in Britain,
Spain, Indochina, South America, Syria, Southern Africa and Australia.
He has a first-class degree from Melbourne University and a D. Phil from
Oxford. He can speak and/or read seven languages.
