April 2009

Geographical Magazine, the Royal Geographical Society’s official mouthpiece, weighs in:

Gastronomic pleasure is all about the details: always add a tiny splash of water to whisky to release the hidden aromas; never eat cheese straight from the fridge. There is a trick to making a cup of tea, too, as Sarah Rose reveals in her entertaining new book.

Country Life is a very English magazine, and they seem to approve.

What a hero he is, disguising himself as Chinese with a long black pigtail to venture into China’s alarming hinterland to smuggle out tea plants….He had to face all 19th Century China’s perils — bandits, cannibalism, fevers and pirates. This, and the detailed description of how tea is made from raw camellia leaves will ensure you value your cuppa as never before.

I just read my Amazon page.

Review
Rose’s account is full of colour
–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

Review
The best parts of the book are not the dangers that Fortune encountered, but Rose’s assured, confident descriptions of the manufacture of tea. Like Fortune, the reader goes on a journey of discovery

Review
[Fortune's] story is well worth the telling, and despite the dearth of private papers, Rose does so with skill and restraint

Review
Reveals our cuppa wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for an amazing Victorian, armed only with a rusty pistol and a pigtail, who stole the secret of tea from under the nose of China’s ruthless warlords

Scotland on Sunday
A compelling sketch of the world of globalisation before instant information, and transforms a modest Scottish botanist into a swashbuckling pirate capitalist … A genuinely curious and evocative yarn