Harvest: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects
About this audiobook
‘An exceptional first book; Harvest is a subtle, fascinating braiding of travel, cultural and natural history ... It is a pleasure and an education to journey with him in these pages’ Robert Macfarlane
In a centuries-old tradition, farmers in northwestern Iceland scour remote coastal plains for the down of nesting eider ducks.
High inside a vast cave in Borneo, men perched atop rickety ladders collect swiftlets’ nests, a delicacy believed to be a cure for almost anything.
Eiderdown and edible birds’ nests: both are luxury products, ultimately destined for the super-rich. To the rest of the world these materials are mere commodities but to the harvesters they are all imbued with myth, tradition, folklore and ritual, and form part of a shared identity and history.
These objects are two of the seven natural wonders whose stories Harvest tells: eiderdown, vicuña wool, sea silk, vegetable ivory, civet coffee, guano and edible birds’ nests. Harvest follows their journey from the wildest parts of the planet, traversing Iceland, Indonesia, and Peru, to its urban centres, drawing on the voices of the gatherers, shearers and entrepreneurs who harvest, process and trade them.
Blending interviews, history and travel writing, Harvest sets these human stories against our changing economic and ecological landscape. What do they tell us about capitalism, global market forces and overharvesting? How does a local micro-economy survive in a hyper-connected world?
Harvest makes us see the world with wonder, curiosity and new concern. It is an original and magical new map of our world and its riches.
About the author
Edward Posnett was born in London and studied at Cambridge and Oxford before working in the City in financial investigations.
Shortly after leaving financial services, he learnt about the Icelandic tradition of eiderdown harvesting in which farmers offer protection to wild sea ducks in return for their valuable lightweight down. Enchanted by its promise of symbiosis and cooperation, he travelled to Iceland and wrote an account of the trade, 'Eiderdown', which won The Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize. His first book, Harvest, builds on this essay, introducing the reader to small harvests around the globe through the stories of seven wondrous objects that can be held in the hand.
He lives in Philadelphia and is a keen linguist, swimmer and amateur potter.
