Penguins, Pineapples and Pangolins: First Encounters with the Exotic

Can you remember seeing a tiger for the first time? Tasting a pineapple? Touching a cactus? Probably not, because in these modern times everyone is very knowing—knowledge is at our fingertips and it sometimes feels as if there is nothing new to discover. The awe and excitement from that moment has been lost because these objects and experiences have become ordinary to us. But, if we travel back in time a few hundred years, before the age of globalization, people were encountering new foods, animals, plants, peoples and cultures for the first time as overseas trade routes opened up. Compiled from the archives of the British Library, this new book reflects the wonderment and curiosity of these new experiences.