Indian author Amitav Ghosh talks to Graeme Green about colonialism and the current opioid crisis.
‘The poppy trade sustained the British empire’
The small, colourful flowers of papaver somniferum seem quite innocuous, but there are few plants that have had such a devastating impact as the opium poppy, according to author Amitav Ghosh. As well as ecocide and climate catastrophe, Ghosh has been writing about the opium poppy for nearly two decades, notably in his bestselling Ibis trilogy of historical novels: Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire.
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