2 Literary Stocking fillers – Drugs and drug policy ‘Must reads’

Here are two books that would make excellent Christmas presentsthis year.  The first is drugs historian,writer, broadcaster and Transform Trustee Mike Jay’s recently updated:

Emperors of Dreams – Drugs in the nineteenth century:

About which Julian Keeling in The New Statesman and Societysaid:

"Intelligent, witty, cogent and a bit pissed off,Emperors of Dreams is one of the best books on drugs I have come across, andshould be mandatory reading for anyone concerned with drug legalisation."

Coleridge and de Quincey swilling bitter draughts of laudanum, Sigmund Freudand Sherlock Holmes dallying with cocaine, Baudelaire and Gautier rapt inhashish fantasies behind velvet curtains, even Queen Victoria swallowing herprescription dose of cannabis - these snapshot images are familiar, but what isthe story which lies behind them? How did cannabis and cocaine, opium andether, mushrooms and mescaline enter the worlds of nineteenth century Britain, Europe and America, and what was their impacton the century’s dreams and nightmares?

Emperors of Dreams paints a fresh and startling picture both of today’sillicit drugs and of the nineteenth century in general. It shows that the ageof Empire and Victorian values was awash with drugs, and traces their coursethrough the rapidly evolving arenas of science and colonial expansion and thedemimondes of popular subculture and literary fashion, putting into context thedrug habits and references of writers as diverse as Coleridge, de Quincey,Baudelaire, Dumas, Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, William James andSigmund Freud.

See here for more reviews

The second is former Guardian Society Editor Malcolm Dean’s:

Democracy Under Attack – How the media distort policy and politics

Geoff Mulgan,former Director of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit and the Cabinet Office'sStrategy Unit in Tony Blair's Government says of the book:

"Malcolm Dean has been uniquelywell-placed to witness innumerable policy successes and failures, and the oftendistorted lens through which they have been covered by the media. Thisthoughtful and wise book will be invaluable for anyone working in the mediawho's involved in explaining social policy, and to anyone involved in socialpolicy who needs to get the media on their side."

How big a beast is the media? Can right wing tabloidsinfluence social policy using their ability to fan fears and prejudices? Malcolm Dean, the Guardian's longstanding chiefmonitor of social policy, expertly indicts his own trade through a series ofseven case studies. Drawing on four decades of top level Whitehallbriefings, topped up by interviews with 150 senior participants in thepolicy-making process, the book is packed with new insights, and colourfulstories, from events in Whitehall'scorridors, culminating in a damning list detailing the seven deadly sins of the'reptiles' (modern journalists).

It has a cogent, detailed and comprehensive description of UK drug policyshenanigans from 2000-2007, including contributions from Transform.  

  

Reviewed in Camden New Journal

Its only competition covering this period isin The Diaries of Chris Mullin – A view from the foothills, 2009.  Which, amongst other gems, gives the inside dope on Mullin's groundbreaking leadership as Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee Drug Policy Enquiry of 2001/2.

If you are purchasing online, please do it through Transform's Amazon Account, to donate to Transform as you purchase. All books have a link to www.amazon.com where the book is available to purchase. If purchased through these links, thanks to the Amazon Associates affiliate programme, Transform receives a ten percent donation of the cost of the book.

Go on, fill your snow boots!