Sea of Poppies is the first in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy, set against the backdrop of the Opium Wars. The trilogy takes its name from an old ‘blackbirder’, a ship that once carried slaves from West Africa to Britain and America, and now carries indentured Indians and prisoners of the British to Mauritius, the site of their new colony.

On its maiden voyage to Mauritius, the Ibis is carrying in its crew and cargo Zachary, the mulatto from Baltimore who finds comrades within the ship’s lascar crew, Paulette, a French orphan who would rather escape to Mauritius as a poor Indian woman then stay and pretend to be British; a Raja who has lost his kingdom; and a Chinese opium addict. How they have ended up here, amongst the rest of the itinerant souls on this vessel, is Ghosh’s story. And he is in his element, with his exquisite eye for detail, exuberant historical storytelling and his precise feel for his characters.

I couldn’t put it down, and I am most upset that I have been hooked and left dangling as Ghosh writes the next two instalments.