Salt

This book has as its subtitle 'A World History', and if that seems a rather grandiloquent claim, read on! Kurlansky needs no special pleading to convince even the most sceptical of readers that the progress of human civilization, from China, Egypt and Rome to today can be understood in terms of the importance of salt. It has dominated economics for millenia, wars have been fought over its control, expeditions have prospected for it, inventors, many anonymous, have laboured with loving ingenuity to find out how best to harvest it, entrepreneurs have spent fortunes seeking how to make most profit from it, lives have been sacrificed to it, it has occasioned rebellions and brought about lasting social change. Perhaps its significance was best summed up in the sixth century by Cassiodorus who said: 'There may be someone who does not seek gold, but there never yet lived a man who does not desire salt.' Apart from its savour, it is a substance that the body actually needs, though how much is one of the mysteries that still remain unexplained. Kurlansky concentrates on sodium chloride - table salt, that happy example of yin/yang, when an acid and a base combine - although he discusses other salts too in passing, and one of the charms of this book is the succession of alluring recipes. In some the appeal is purely local or historical: few would enjoy the Romans' beloved garum or the Chinese delicacy of salted stomach of frog. All in all there is no end to the fascination of this book, though I shall not claim that no kitchen should be without it. Review by Sister Wendy Beckett (Kirkus UK)