Smoke And Ashes

<p><b>'A bracing new history of the global opium trade . . . Ghosh's tentacular history embraces opium's entanglement with furniture, architecture, gardens and its role in modern wars . . . But it's Ghosh's big-picture thinking that has made his nonfiction so influential . . . A huge achievement' </b><i>The New York Times Book Review</i></p><p> From the nineteenth century the British reaped huge profits by exporting vast quantities of opium from India, waged wars to defend its access to markets, and created a devastating addiction crisis in China. A sweeping story of greed and power, <i>Smoke and Ashes</i> reveals how opium created the wealth of modern cities like Mumbai, Singapore and Shanghai, as well as many of America's most powerful families and institutions, and is a part of Ghosh's personal history. <Br><Br><b>'Ghosh triumphs in laying out the shame of the British Empire's opium trade for all to see' </b><i>Financial Times</i><Br><Br> <b>'This gave me a deeper chill than any TV series about the opioid crisis. . . The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb' </b><i>Sunday Telegraph</i><Br><Br> <b>'Superlative . . . synthesise[s] a wealth of research with remarkable intellectual clarity'</b><i> The Times</i><Br> <b><Br> 'Expansive and thoughtful'</b> Peter Frankopan, <i>The Spectator</i></p>