Looking for the forbidden

The thesis of The Devil&rsquos Picnic (Macmillan &pound12.99) is not immediately prepossessing, just a little bit silly &ndash travelling to various corners of the world to seek out and sample illegal substances, chiefly because they&rsquore illegal, &ldquobecause when you can&rsquot have it, you want it&rdquo. So, Taras Grescoe searches Oslo for hjemmebrent (96% alcohol, banned in Norway) smuggles epoisses into New York (&lsquothe world&rsquos stinkiest cheese&rsquo, made from unpasteurised milk in France, banned in the US) pursues a dish of criadillas (bull&rsquos testicles) in Madrid sneaks in Cuban cigars into the US sniffs out &lsquosmoke-easies&rsquo in New York City chews gum in Singapore and so on. But the faintly adolescent adoration of &ldquothose who choose to cross the line&mdashthe born rebels, the ne&rsquoer-do-wells, the independent thinkers&rdquo turns remarkably quickly into a more nuanced exploration of the complicated business of moral policing (and the elaborate ways people find to side-step state-imposed restrictions). At its most serious, the book is a piece of competent journalism &ndash both sides of the &lsquocase&rsquo are thoroughly researched and presented. At its most fascinating, it&rsquos a set of outspoken travel essays about lands interesting (the cheese-making village of Epoisses morbid and manic Madrid smoke-free but less-than-judgemental San Francisco) and stultifying (unredeemed Singapore).

Nayantara Patel