On Island Time: The Rum Chronicles
À propos de ce livre audio
On Island Time: The Rum Chronicles
Fifteen years into a life spent chasing horizons, John finally turned his attention to the one thing that had been in his hand at nearly every stop along the way. Not the water, not the food this time, but the drink — and what he found, once he started asking real questions about it, was a history far heavier and far wider than anything he expected to find at the bottom of a glass.
It starts on a distillery porch in Key West, where a debt owed to an old friend's rum sends him back to Barbados and Mount Gay, the oldest continuously operating rum distillery on earth, tracing the spirit to its origins in a molasses byproduct nobody wanted and a name — kill-devil — that tells you exactly how rough that first pour must have been. From there the story splits along with the spirit itself: Cuba's polished, column-still lightness against Jamaica's stubborn, funky pot-still tradition, a rum ration that steadied the Royal Navy for three centuries and quietly helped light the fuse of the American Revolution, and a reckoning, unflinching and necessary, with the triangular trade that turned this drink into one of the actual currencies used to buy and sell human beings.
It's not all reckoning. There's a distillery race to the top of the industry in Puerto Rico and a small island in the French Caribbean that legislated itself out of that same race entirely. There's a regatta in Antigua crowded with sailors from six continents, each one handing over a bottle from home — the Philippines, India, Australia, the Indian Ocean — proof that rum was never a single hemisphere's invention so much as the same simple, stubborn opportunity, repeating itself wherever sugarcane found a warm enough coastline to take root.
Told in the same unhurried, first-person voice that carried readers through two continents and a river in "The Long Way Home," this is a shorter, sharper companion volume — one spirit, followed all the way back to where it started, and to the uncomfortable truths it's been quietly carrying in every glass ever since.
En voir d'autres
À propos de l'auteur
John Helms is an accomplished author, environmentalist, and beach enthusiast who has dedicated his life to preserving the natural beauty of our world. He has a deep love for the beach and the ocean, and his passion for the environment has led him to co-found the Salty Soul Foundation with his wife, Mary.
John was born in Mississippi but spent much of his childhood exploring the beaches and marine life. His experiences sparked a lifelong fascination with the ocean and a deep commitment to protecting the environment.
As an author, John has written numerous books on marine life and conservation, drawing on his vast knowledge of the ocean and his passion for preserving it for future generations. He is an engaging and inspiring speaker, and has given talks and presentations on marine conservation around the world.
In 2017, John and his wife Mary co-founded the Salty Soul Foundation, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to preserving the environment and educating people about the importance of protecting the world's oceans and beaches. The foundation supports a range of conservation efforts, including beach clean-up programs, marine wildlife rehabilitation, and education and outreach initiatives.
John's work with the Salty Soul Foundation has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades. He is widely respected as a leading voice in marine conservation, and his efforts have inspired countless people to get involved in protecting the environment.
When he's not writing or working on conservation projects, John and Mary can be found simply enjoying the beauty of the beach. His love for the ocean and his dedication to preserving it for future generations make him a true champion of the environment.
