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Product Description
Review
Rose's account is full of colour
--The Times
--The Times
Review
Reshapes into gripping prose Fortune's own memoirs and letters ... An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A magnificent debut,
By
This review is from: For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink (Hardcover)
Elegant, erudite, and entertaining, Sarah Rose's book is a wonderful evocation of a distant era of British colonialism, exploration, and intrigue. The discovery of the Chinese secret of tea cultivation by explorer and spy Robert Fortune (what an apropos name!) becomes, in Rose's skillful telling, more than a forgotten page from a dusty history book--it serves as a striking reminder of globalization's centuries-old roots. Sit down, pour yourself a cup of Earl Grey, and enjoy.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For all the tea in China,
By Chris Burgar (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink (Hardcover)
WOW, what an excellent read!
Here is a story hung on a skeleton of facts about how tea was stolen from China by Robert Fortune during the early part of the 19 century working on behalf of the `Honourable Company'. It is about the trials and tribulations experienced by him and others in their efforts to send and keep alive; samples, cuttings and seeds of quality tea shrubs and send them to India; it's about how Victorian ingenuity circumnavigated the many challenges that beset this task and how Fortune discovered how the Chinese grew, processed and made tea (black and green teas are a result of the processing, not from different plants). How the story of tea resulted in a major contribution to the growth and development of the British Empire and how its work force was slowly but surely weaned off other more popular drinks often based on alcohol. It places the story within the wider context of world trade and economic thuggery played by Britain. There are uncomfortable moments when one realises that the skills and attributes that led to those outstanding achievements, which contributed towards the `sun never setting on the British Empire' were also the same attributes that were involved in cultural abuse, economic exploitation and the Honourable Companies trade monopoly. Yes, there are some factual errors and hints of misunderstanding, but no one could undertake a challenge as wide and encompassing as `tea' and hit every target spot on, but this story is well written and interesting and would make a superb historical film. If only we had been taught history like this during my era! This little gem of a book is exceptionally well researched and presented in a style that is immediately accessible to all. The author's extensive knowledge and experiences clearly jump out at the reader from every page. Setting scenes of a mountainous China; hospitable monks; river pirates, chiselling interpreters; bandits; druggies, but always with one eye open to plant collection and the ultimate goal acquiring tea plants. You can almost taste the tea straight off the page. Who ever said book are dead, was wrong.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For the Love of Tea,
By apas (Brighton) - See all my reviews
This review is from: For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink (Hardcover)
Sarah Rose's refreshing account of a period of Sino-British history that is little known outside Tea Circles, is a joy to read. She likes her hero, Robert Fortune and has a love affair with Camellia Sinensis. There are snippets of information, so interesting, that one wants to make scholarly notes on the blank pages at the end of the book!
Rose's prose flows and the book deserves to be a best seller.
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