If you vowed on the eve of the new millennium to never smoke a cigarette
again, do not read The Smoking Book by Lesley Stern. Her evocation of
the sensuous delights of the evil weed is seductive “smoke like
life-giving mist that purifies and reinvigorates the weak and wards off evil
spirits”. This series of historical essays and personal reflections is itself an
ex-smoker’s cathartic attempt to control her craving for nicotine. Tagging
along, we inhale her fragrant memories of growing up on a colonial tobacco
plantation in Zimbabwe and are introduced to the women of the Tonga tribe, who…
