Opium: A History
Written by Martin Booth
Narrated by Julian Elfer
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
In this first full-length history of opium, acclaimed author Martin Booth uncovers the multifaceted nature of this remarkable narcotic and the bittersweet effects of a simple poppy with a deadly legacy.
Martin Booth
Martin Booth (1944-2004) was the bestselling author of novels including Hiroshima Joe, Islands of Silence, and The Industry of Souls, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another novel, A Very Private Gentlemen, was adapted into the 2010 movie, The American, starring George Clooney. He also wrote several nonfiction books, including Cannabis: A History, Opium: A History, and the memoir Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood. Booth was born in England, but spent much of his childhood in Hong Kong, a location that would deeply inspire his writing. He moved back to England at the age of 20, and started his literary career as a poet. He worked as a schoolmaster, a job he held until 1985, when the success of Hiroshima Joe allowed him to devote himself full-time to his writing. At the time of his death in 2004, he was living in Devon, England.
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Reviews for Opium
33 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is truly a comprehensive history of Opium and if you enjoy economic histories, you will likely enjoy this book. As with any commodity, a historical accounting will have its dry spots as well as very interesting spots depending upon the reader. The author very much does draw the most logical conclusions about what would become the next chapter of the history of opium with turn of 21st century and the growing demand for opium and opioid products and supply ever ready to feed humankind’s insatiable appetite for opium.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I found myself alternately crazy bored and truly engaged with Booth’s narrative. Essentially he tries to cover everything regarding this subject and does an admirable job – stuffing 4.54 kilograms of crap into a five pound bag, so to speak. Whereas I was less engrossed with the quite detailed technical descriptions of opium harvesting and processing early on, budding criminal scientist types no doubt want more. Overall, the author weaves together a story encompassing addicted 18th century Brits, 20th century international smuggling operations, money laundering mechanisms, inevitable CIA involvement, 19th century international smuggling operations, global scientific, medical, and legal developments, gangsters, coolies, militias, and Hollywood actresses – seemingly the whole gamut. If I ever really did, I certainly no longer desire any more information about opiates! Anecdotes that I’ll remember for at least a few weeks include the falseness of TV detectives licking product at a bust (purer stuff might addict them instantly), Elvis’s ironic contribution to Nixon’s war on drugs declaration in 1971, and how an Englishman can write just like a US author except when it comes to mentioning “goals” (for incarceration).Aside from my typically superficial observations, Booth offers a considerate thesis – based on a very sophisticated historical account – about the multifarious issues revolving around the role of opium growth in developing territories, the resultant drug problems in developed nations, and the various criminal (and often governmental) machinations that connect these contemporary poles.