Read excerpts from FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA at Smithsonian Magazine.
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For All the Tea in China releases in North America on March 18, and the reviews are starting to arrive:
A delicious brew of information on the history of tea cultivation and consumption in the Western world…a remarkably riveting tale. Booklist, (starred review)
Sarah Rose steeps us in the story of Robert Fortune, a botanist, gardener, and industrial spy who went undercover in the tea fields of China’s Wuyi Shan hills in order to steal the secrets of manufacturing the world’s favorite drink. National Geographic Traveler
You easily picture the movie version with its Indiana Jones for the botany set. Who knew tea could be so…hot? Food for Thought at Barnes&Noble
Bloggers are pouring on praise too:
… a surprising page-turner. This story is absolutely fascinating. (Basil and Spice)
Author Sarah Rose delves into the seductive past and retrieves the best, most aromatic leaves for our enjoyment. (Cineaste’s Bookshelf)
Rose tells Fortune’s own dramatic story well. (Blogtrotter)
The BBC chose FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA as Book of the Week.
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Yes, it’s true! Read by the author herself. For All the Tea in China will be available as an audiobook on March 18.
That’s a pretty nice looking catalog cover, no?
For All the Tea in China
The US cover, from Viking Publishers.
For All the Tea in China is the Telegraph’s top choice for the week.
For All the Tea in China is BBC4’s Book of the Week – all week, and for the next two. HERE.
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 TimesReview
Reshapes into gripping prose Fortune’s own memoirs and letters … An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addictionReview
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 discoveryReview
[Fortune's] story is well worth the telling, and despite the dearth of private papers, Rose does so with skill and restraintReview
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 warlordsScotland 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
The Tattler and the Resident are on Robert Fortune’s side.
Travel? You dare not read the amazing For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose. It’ll get you going – in disguise, yet.
Tags: For All the Tea in China, Hutchison, Reviews, Robert Fortune, UK edition
He is not my mother, I’ve never even met him, but he lives in China and said “I couldn’t put the book down.” – This Is China Blog
Seems like the T-Ching likes Robert Fortune too - T Ching
“If you like tea (and presumably you do, or why would you be reading this blog?) go get it from your local library or bookshop or friend and read it.” – Tea For You and Me
Someone in Maine is pre-ordering her copy (ok, ok, so she’s a friend, but still…) - Travels With Hillary
Another one to please my mother.
This brisk little study gives a compelling sketch of the world of globalisation before the age of instant information, and transforms a modest Scottish botanist into a swashbuckling pirate capitalist, who incidentally changed the way we all have breakfast.
A girl could get used to this.
Surely those old tea parlours should have displayed a picture of The Saviour of The Cuppa next to portraits of Churchill and the Queen
I’m starting to enjoy this.
Concealed in the murky depths of your cuppa is nothing less than a crucial phase in the rise of the British Empire. If the secret of producing tea could be wrested from the grip of the Chinese Emperor, and the plant itself transplanted to the foothills of the Himalayas in the British Raj, vast revenues would follow and British imperial dominance in the Far East would be incontestable. Enter Robert Fortune, botanist and plant-hunter extraordinaire – as diligent, daring and enterprising a Victorian hero as one could wish for.
Sarah Rose tells a stirring tale of individual derring-do and the fate of nations.
The date is fixed, the final week in April FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA is BBC 4’s Book of the Week.
They love me. They love me slightly less. The FT so totally loves me.
Tea is ingrained in the British psyche but the story benefits from an American author for whom the subject is almost exotic. An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction.
