A social history of tea. (Product Showcase).

By Jane Pettigrew

This new book by Jane Pettigrew, editor of Tea International, tells the story of tea drinking in Britain from the 1650s to the present day.

Enjoying a cup of tea is something we now take very much for granted, but that has not always been the case. In the

In this intriguing story, Jane Pettigrew explores the important place tea has occupied in British society. So important that Churchill reckoned it to be more influential than ammunition in winning the Second World War. The emergence of tea rooms and the freedom they gave women to exchange ideas in public played a vital role in the progress of the suffragette movement. It has even been suggested that tea was the secret ingredient in Britain's industrial supremacy. Workers in Britain boiled the water to brew up, thus safeguarding themselves from the horrors of dysentery and the like and stealing a march on non-tea drinking nations.

Advocated as an alternative to alcohol during the days of the Temperance Movement, tea has always been recognized for its health-giving qualities, and today this is even more true as tea's antioxidant properties are making it fashionable in the health market.

The Boston Tea Party, the eccentricity of tango tea dances, tea gowns, clipper races, smuggling, high teas, afternoon teas, tea at breakfast, and unusual tea wares all make their appearance in the story. The book charts the development of tea from an exotic commodity to its present day position as a pick-me-up for just about everyone in Britain.

The book is illustrated with stunning and informative pictures ranging from 18th-century wallpaper showing Chinese tea pickers to tea parties in National Trust houses, paintings, cartoons, advertising prints and photographs of tea events.