Eiderdown by Edward Poslett is his current-retrospective essay on the cultural and economic history of Exactly What It Says In The Title, which was an important luxury trade good for several centuries right down to this day, where it still forms a major part of the export economy of Iceland (to be fair, they don't have all that much available to export, and I say this as someone who considers Iceland my 2nd favourite country), free courtesy of publisher Random House's Vintage Digital imprint.
This is the winner of the 3rd annual essay prize jointly offered by The Bodley Head (
Wikipedia, formerly a longstanding independent publishing house now absorbed into a division of Random House UK) and the Financial Times (
Wikipedia), and you can read a bit more about its particular win and some of the judging officials' comments on why it was their top pick over
here in their announcement newspiece.
Currently free to pre-order, slated for January 20th @
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the
UK) &
Google Play (available to Canadians).
Apparently there may be pictures involved, since this is listed with a rather large filesize for its estimated length, so you may prefer to set it not to go directly to your device if you've got some kind of 3G dataplan limit or horribly spotty connection coverage.
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
Because as I keep telling you, I have this inordinate fondness for cultures which produce dragon boats.
And when you combine it with cultural/political history-of stuff which I also have an inordinate fondness for, especially in a quasi-academic setting, then
. <-- I don't actually dance anywhere near this well IRL.
Enjoy!
Description
Over the centuries eiderdown has been coveted by the Vikings, Russian tsars and medieval tax collectors who accepted it as revenue. The plumage of a fat sea duck, eiderdown – treasured for its extraordinary lightness and insulation – now joins cocaine as an instrument of globalisation and commodity of the super-rich.
In this revelatory essay, Edward Posnett travels to the Westfjords region of Iceland to explore the fragile relationship between Icelanders and the duck. Eiderdown harvesting began with the arrival of Norse settlers in the 9th century, and it is now stuffed into pillows, duvets and clothing which sell for thousands of pounds in Japan, China, Germany and Russia. What might at first appear an idyllic pastime becomes a story of compromise and exploitation. Posnett’s finely spun prose and his fascinating encounters open up this seldom seen trade, one which hangs in the balance.