Peter Macinnis, Bittersweet: The Story of Sugar Reviews

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Good Points: This is brief, but covers an immense range, bringing together some absolutely incredible ideas and content. It is witty and pithy -- and highly entertaining.

Bad Points: It should have been longer!

General comments: In a small trade paperback, Macinnis, well-known as a broadcaster and writer and educator in Australia, sums up the amazing history of sugar, both from cane and from beet, over the past 9000 years.

Sugar began in Papua-New Guinea, and spread around the world, driving slavery, massive environmental damage, and even wars, he claims. He looks at the "indentured servants" of many countries who replaced the slaves, and how nations manoeuvred to keep their sugar islands, and how sugar was even involved in World War I.

I wish history had been like this when I was at school!