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  • Published: 15 July 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099512288
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $27.99

Take Me to the Source

In Search of Water




Take Me to the Source is the charming and fascinating tale of the one substance that makes life on earth possible.

Colourless, tasteless, odourless, ageless: water is both the simplest thing on earth and the most complex. We cannot live without it yet it kills six thousand children a day. It is the ultimate renewable resource but we pollute it without thinking twice. Why, if water is so valuable does nobody want to pay for it unless it comes in a designer bottle? Is it really the oil of the twenty-first century? Will we all soon be fighting over it, or can it lead countries into co-operation rather than conflict?

In this enthralling voyage of discovery, Rupert Wright sets out to discover exactly what water is and why it plays such an important role in history, culture, art and literature. Part reportage and part personal journey, Take Me to the Source is the fascinating story of the substance that makes life on earth possible.

  • Published: 15 July 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099512288
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $27.99

About the author

Rupert Wright

Rupert Wright has been a journalist for more than twenty years, writing for publications including the Financial Times, the Washington Post and the European. He has also worked for the World Bank and with the United Nation's Betterworld Fund, co-ordinating a programme of workshops from Bangladesh to Brazil. He is the author of Notes from the Languedoc and lives with his family in France.

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Praise for Take Me to the Source

Superb book

Alexandra Masters, Observer

Meticulously researched compendium... Poetic vignettes flow into journalistic reportage, ensuring you never reach for a glass in the same way again

Elizabeth Kirkwood, Daily Telegraph

An entertaining tour of the world of water

Times Literary Supplement

An optimistic read in these ecologically-troubled times

Financial Times

Splendid omnium gatherum of water science, art and lore ... Wright's 10 commandments for water projects should be required reading for all engaged with water governance

Giles Foden, Guardian

It is to Wright's credit that that he manages to introduce so many ideas without his writing sounding glib or strained

Daily Telegraph