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Award-winning writer Taras Grescoe admits that he has alwaysbeen fascinated by the forbidden. Never one to deny his desires, he set out on aglobal journey, determined to track down the foods and substances that killjoygovernments have often bizarrely prohibited. The result is a spread like noother: an aperitif of hjemmebrent, a powerful Norwegian moonshine; awedge of Époisses, a stinky French cheese that can carry a brain-swellingbacteria; a cup of restorative Bolivian cocaine tea; and a host of legendary andsought-after substances that Grescoe risks health and jail time to dig in to.
Grescoe takes us with him around the world to sample damnedfood, drink and smoke, along the way serving up a unique and irreverent feast ofunsavoury characters and customs. The culmination is a deliciously decadentfull-course meal for those brave enough to lay down a blanket, open the basketand partake of the devil’s picnic.

Devils Picnic

Grescoe, Taras

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

HarperCollins, Publishers

An eye-opening look at aquaculture that does for seafood what Fast Food Nation did for beef. Dividing his sensibilities between Epicureanism and ethics, Taras Grescoe set out on a nine-month, worldwide search for a delicious―and humane―plate of seafood. What he discovered shocked him. From North American Red Lobsters to fish farms and research centers in China, Bottomfeeder takes readers on an illuminating tour through the $55-billion-dollar-a-year seafood industry. Grescoe examines how out-of-control pollution, unregulated fishing practices, and climate change affect what ends up on our plate. More than a screed against a multibillion-dollar industry, however, this is also a balanced and practical guide to eating, as Grescoe explains to readers which fish are best for our environment, our seas, and our bodies. At once entertaining and illuminating, Bottomfeeder is a thoroughly enjoyable look at the world's cuisines and an examination of the fishing and farming practices we too easily take for granted.

Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

Harpercollins Canada

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

The Devil's Picnic

Cooking Education & Reference

Harper-perennial

Dead Seas

Pan Publishing

The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists

The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists309 pp. "In this hilarious on-th-road odyssey, Taras Grescoe crosses teh entire Eurasian landmass, plunging into places where tourists are thickest--touring France in a rental car, taking the cure at Baden-Baden, stuffing his face on a cruise ship, and following the Lonely Planet crowd from India to Kathmandu."Keywords: TARAS GRESCOE END OF ELSEWHERE TRAVELS AMONG TOURISTS ADVENTURE TRAVEL

Travel

Consortium Book Sales & Dist

Taras Grescoe rides the rails all over the world and makes an elegant and impassioned case for the imminent end of car culture and the coming transportation revolution
"I am proud to call myself a straphanger," writes Taras Grescoe. The perception of public transportation in America is often unflattering―a squalid last resort for those with one too many drunk-driving charges, too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get behind the wheel of a car. Indeed, a century of auto-centric culture and city planning has left most of the country with public transportation that is underfunded, ill maintained, and ill conceived. But as the demand for petroleum is fast outpacing the world's supply, a revolution in transportation is under way. 
Grescoe explores the ascendance of the straphangers―the growing number of people who rely on public transportation to go about the business of their daily lives. On a journey that takes him around the world―from New York to Moscow, Paris, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Bogotá, Phoenix, Portland, Vancouver, and Philadelphia―Grescoe profiles public transportation here and abroad, highlighting the people and ideas that may help undo the damage that car-centric planning has done to our cities and create convenient, affordable, and sustainable urban transportation―and better city living―for all.

Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile

Social Sciences

Times Books

St. Martin's: Griffin

On the eve of WWII, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the twentieth century's most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon. 
Emily "Mickey" Hahn was a legendary New Yorker journalist whose vivid writing played a crucial role in opening Western eyes to the realities of life in China.
At the height of the Depression, Hahn arrived in Shanghai after a disappointing affair with an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter, convinced she will never love again. After checking in to Sassoon's glamorous Cathay Hotel, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of the expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Acton, and a colourful gangster named Morris "Two-Gun" Cohen. But when she meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers the real Shanghai through his eyes: the city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium-smokers, displaced Chinese peasants, and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees―a place her innate curiosity will lead her to explore first hand. Danger lurks on the horizon, though, as the brutal Japanese occupation destroys the seductive world of pre-war Shanghai, paving the way for Mao Tse-tung's Communists rise to power.

Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love and International Intrigue in a Doomed World

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

St.Martin's Press

Taras Grescoe spins the true story of a British aristocrat, an American flapper, and a Chinese poet who found themselves trapped in an unlikely love triangle amid the decadence of Jazz Age Shanghai. 
On the eve of WWII, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the twentieth century’s most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon.
Emily “Mickey” Hahn was a legendary New Yorker journalist whose vivid writing played a crucial role in opening Western eyes to the realities of life in China.
At the height of the Depression, Hahn arrives in Shanghai after a disappointing affair with an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter, convinced she would never love again. After checking in to Sassoon’s glamorous Cathay Hotel, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of the expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Acton, and a colorful gangster named Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen. But when she meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers the real Shanghai through his eyes: the city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium smokers, displaced Chinese peasants, and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees―a place her innate curiosity will lead her to explore firsthand. Danger lurks on the horizon, though, as the brutal Japanese occupation destroys the seductive world of pre-war Shanghai, paving the way for Mao Tse-tung’s Communists rise to power.

Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love, Intrigue, and Decadence in Old China

Picador

Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love and International Intrigue on the Eve of the Second World War

From award-winning and bestselling author Taras Grescoe comes a highly compelling new bestselling book about the twilight of Shanghai before the Second World War
Finalist for the 2016 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction
Longlisted for the 2017 British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
On the eve of the Second World War, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the 20th century’s most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon. Emily Hahn was a legendary New Yorker writer who would cover China for nearly fifty years, and play an integral part in opening Asia up to the West. But at the height of the Depression, “Mickey” Hahn had just arrived in Shanghai nursing a broken heart after a disappointing affair with an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter, convinced she would never love again. After entering Sassoon’s glamorous Cathay Hotel, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of the expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Acton and the colourful gangster named Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen, who had once lived in Saskatoon and Edmonton and later retired to Montreal. When she meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers the real Shanghai through his eyes: the city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium-smokers, displaced Chinese peasants and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees - a place her innate curiosity will lead her to discover first-hand. But danger lurks on the horizon and Mickey barely makes it out alive as the brutal Japanese occupation destroys the seductive world of pre-war Shanghai and Mao Tse-tung’s Communists come to power in China.
Taras Grescoe, with his trademark style and verve, brings this rich history to life in all its beautiful and intimate detail.

History

Military

HarperAvenue

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