The Poppy By Nicholas J. Saunders

Key Features: The first and the definitive: Saunders is an unrivalled expert on archaeology, particularly of WWI; no other book has explored this beguiling flower in all its rich and conflicted history. Published in paperback for the centenary of WW1, with major new articles in history magazines and comment pieces in newspapers by the author about the poppy as memorial icon. In the aftermath of the horrific trench warfare of the First World War, the poppy sprouting across the killing fields of France and Belgium, then immortalized in John McCrae’s moving poem became a worldwide icon. Yet the poppy has a longer history, as the tell-tale sign of human cultivation of the land, of the ravages of war, and of the desire to escape the earthly realm through opium dreams or morphine drips. From the ancient Egyptian fights over prized potions to the addicts of the American Civil War, to the British entanglements in the Opium Wars with China and the struggle to end Afghanistan’s tribal narcotics trade, there is the poppy. Now, Nicholas J. Saunders shares the definitive history of this ever-enduring flower icon.