Adams offers rich historical context, cultural perspective, anecdotes and pointed observations This book is as titillating as it is sobering. - New York Times Adams, who has previously written a terrific biography of the little known decadent poet Ernest Dowson, is clearly the man for the job. He has a real feel for the period and there is a wealth of detail and insight here... These days I satisfy my interest (in absinthe) by reading about it, and I'm therefore grateful for this essential contribution to the growing literature of the green fairy. -Tom Hodgkinson, The Guardian In this entertaining history, Jad Adams traces the emerald drink's astonishing popularity in post-Bonaparte France... A diligent social historian, Adams has conducted much excellent research in Pontarlier. -Ian Thomson, The Observer Jad Adams is himself an extraordinary polymath... His research has been omnivorous and meticulous... Jad Adams has assimilated all this material...historical, medical, social, cultural - and melded it into a most beguiling book... he is the master of a classically lucid style enlivened by dashes of the colloquial and by entertaining detail... he gives marvellously evocative thumbnail sketches... salted with funny anecdotes... a model of how to convey the exhilaration of an exciting subject without getting all melodramatic... In reading it I almost experienced the hallucinations... -Bevis Hillier, The Spectator ...this is a well-researched, often poignant, and always fascinating biography of a subject whose history, rather like the liqueur itself when added to seven parts water, has often been clouded and opaque. -Stephen Wood, The Lancet Jad Adams has written a fascinating tale... the green devil, or fairy, has not lost its steely grip. -Illtyd Harrington, Camden Journal 'A splendidly detailed exploration of the subject' Ben Macintyre, The Times A Potpourri of Herb Books, November 1 2004. 'Beautifully illustrated with posters and paintings, this engrossing book is herbal history at its best.' -Connie Krochmal.
