Author Description

The Devil’s Picnic is a feast like no other: start with an aperitif of powerful Norwegian moonshine; nibble on a French raw-milk cheese that can carry a brain-swelling bacteria; sip Bolivian coca tea and Swiss absinthe; maybe puff a Cuban cigar in a California bar. Award-winning journalist Taras Grescoe travels the world sampling these and other substances that have been legally banned and publicly demonized. As he partakes of forbidden pleasures and risks run-ins with the law, his experiences make for fascinating reading and for equally compelling meditations on personal freedom. Who decides what’s bad for us? What role do international politics play in the banning of certain substances? What will be banned next? I guzzled absinthe in the mountains of Switzerland and saw cocaine being made out of coca leaves in the Andes. I smuggled chewing gum and pornography into Singapore and puffed on Cuban cigars in San Francisco. And I’ve brought back wicked souvenirs. —from The Devil’s Picnic