The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects

Harvest

A global exploration of how we harvest and exploit the natural world's bounty - from edible birds' nests to sea silk and eiderdown; a brilliant fusion of travel, nature writing and cultural history.

Edward Posnett has written an exceptional first book; Harvest is a subtle, fascinating braiding of travel, cultural and natural history, ethnography and economic analysis; a modern-day Wunderkammer with echoes of Pico Iyer as well as Sir Thomas Browne. 
Clear-eyed but never blithe, Posnett records the destructiveness of market rapacity as well as rare, hopeful examples of human and more-than-human harmony. It is a pleasure and an education to journey with him in these pages

A truly remarkable debut, weird, inquisitive and swarming with memorable characters

A beautiful exploration of our fraught connections with other species. With seemingly boundless curiosity, Posnett invites us on journeys through the surprising webs created by international trade. Uniting these stories from around the world are essential questions for our time: Is a balance between humans and the rest of nature possible? Or do we inevitably destroy what we harvest and desire? Full of surprise, delight, and horror, these lively tales illuminate and captivate

David George Haskell, author of The Songs of Trees and The Forest Unseen

Harvest opens a wondrous cabinet of curiosities. Posnett engages the reader sensually, intellectually, and poetically. The great gift of this book is that it inspires us to look with new depth into the varied stuff of life, and with this widened perspective, attempt to act with care, grace, intelligence, and joy. An original and bracing read.

Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Mozart’s Starling

Posnett moves from one example to another with moral precision, wryness and a refusal to be discouraged. Stories build subtly and sometimes with sudden drama; all are entangled in complex political, cultural and ecological circumstances

Harvest is a rich and absorbing exploration of places where a singular culture meets global capitalism

Edward Posnett was born in London and studied at Cambridge and Oxford before working in the City in financial investigations. 
 
Shortly after leaving financial services, he learnt about the Icelandic tradition of eiderdown harvesting in which farmers offer protection to wild sea ducks in return for their valuable lightweight down. Enchanted by its promise of symbiosis and cooperation, he travelled to Iceland and wrote an account of the trade, 'Eiderdown', which won The Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize. His first book, Harvest, builds on this essay, introducing the reader to small harvests around the globe through the stories of seven wondrous objects that can be held in the hand. 
 
He lives in Philadelphia and is a keen linguist, swimmer and amateur potter.

‘An exceptional first book; Harvest is a subtle, fascinating braiding of travel, cultural and natural history … It is a pleasure and an education to journey with him in these pages’ Robert Macfarlane 
 
In a centuries-old tradition, farmers in northwestern Iceland scour remote coastal plains for the down of nesting eider ducks. 
 
High inside a vast cave in Borneo, men perched atop rickety ladders collect swiftlets’ nests, a delicacy believed to be a cure for almost anything. 
 
Eiderdown and edible birds’ nests: both are luxury products, ultimately destined for the super-rich. To the rest of the world these materials are mere commodities but to the harvesters they are all imbued with myth, tradition, folklore and ritual, and form part of a shared identity and history. 
 
These objects are two of the seven natural wonders whose stories Harvest tells: eiderdown, vicuña wool, sea silk, vegetable ivory, civet coffee, guano and edible birds’ nests. Harvest follows their journey from the wildest parts of the planet, traversing Iceland, Indonesia, and Peru, to its urban centres, drawing on the voices of the gatherers, shearers and entrepreneurs who harvest, process and trade them. 
 
Blending interviews, history and travel writing, Harvest sets these human stories against our changing economic and ecological landscape. What do they tell us about capitalism, global market forces and overharvesting? How does a local micro-economy survive in a hyper-connected world? 
 
Harvest makes us see the world with wonder, curiosity and new concern. It is an original and magical new map of our world and its riches.

Eiderdown

WINNER OF THE 2014 BODLEY HEAD &amp; FINANCIAL TIMES ESSAY PRIZE

Edward Posnett was born in London. He read Modern Languages at Cambridge and later did postgraduate work at Oxford. After graduating he worked in the City in financial and economic crime investigations. He first learnt about eiderdown on a visit to the London Wetlands Centre, the home of several eiders.

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.

Edward Posnett

'Exceptional...a subtle, fascinating braiding of travel, cultural and natural history... It is a pleasure and an education to journey with Posnett in these pages' ROBERT MACFARLANE 
 
In a centuries-old tradition, farmers in north-western Iceland scour remote coastal plains for the down of nesting eider ducks. High inside a cast cave in Borneo, men perched on rickety ladders collect swiftlets' nests, a delicacy believed to be a cure for almost anything. 
 
 These luxury products are two of the seven natural wonders whose stories Harvest tells: eiderdown, vicuña wool, sea silk, vegetable ivory, civet coffee, guano and edible birds' nests. It follows their journey from the wildest parts of the planet, traversing Iceland, Indonesia, and Peru, to its urban centres, drawing on the voices of the gatherers, shearers and entrepreneurs who harvest, process and trade them. 
 
 Blending interviews, history and travel writing, Harvest sets these human stories against our changing economic and ecological landscape, and makes us see the world with wonder, curiosity and new concern. 
 
(Previously published as Harvest)

Edward Posnett

Strange Harvests

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