BACK COVER #
Psychedelia Britannica is a groundbreaking collection of essays on the use and influence of LSD, hashish, ecstasy and other psychedelic drugs in British culture and society. From Lewis Carroll to R.D. Laing, Pink Floyd to Ambient House, this unique anthology examines how a wide range of substances have provided writers, artists, and psychiatrists with a means of exploring altered states of consciousness, and why drugs have played such a central role in the counter-cultures of the '60s and '90s.With much written of psychedelics in an American context, Psychedelia Britannica is the first book of its kind to focus exclusively on the British Experience. Tracing the much neglected history of drug use and experimentation across various fields, the anthology includes essays from Stuart Metcalfe on Ecstasy, Simon Reynolds on psychedelic music, Ronald Sandison on LSD therapy and Alexander Trocchi on drugs and literary imagination.
BLURBS #
It's a curious fact that the American Psychedelic movement is almost completely a British import...Britannia, you are a nation of inveterate trippers, heads, and stoned visionaries!-- Timothy Leary
"A delightful and informative discussion of the role and rule of drugs in English speaking pop culture from rock to rave. Historians of drugs will enjoy this insiders' history of 20th century PharmoCulture."
-- Terence McKenna, author of Food of the Gods and True Hallucinations.