Monday 20 August 2012

An Empire of Plants

Now available for Kindle
I am proud to announce that my book, An Empire of Plants has just been published as a Kindle (text only) edition.  The book tells the stories of how seven 'plants of power' have, individually and together, had a huge but overlooked impact on global history.

When you get up in the morning you have a cup of tea with a spoonful of sugar before putting on your cotton shirt and driving to work - if you're late you may have to "burn some rubber". During the day you feel like a break and have a sneaky cigarette. If you have a headache maybe you take a painkiller containing codeine After a hard day's work you look forward to a relaxing gin and tonic.

All these activities are only possible because of plant and, today, most of us simply take these plants for granted.

Yet these seven seminal plants - tea, tobacco, sugar, opium, cotton, quinine and rubber -  have, in many and significant ways, shaped the modern world. For instance they have caused wars and the collapse of Governments, instigated the slave trade and the Industrial Revolution, enabled the birth to the United States and powered colonial expansion, and much more. 


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