Culture | There will be blood

An epic history of oil from ancient times to the first world war

There are few clean hands in “A Pipeline Runs Through It”

A fisherman stands on oily mud in the river during low tide at Ogoniland's village of K-Dere, near Bodo, which is part of the Niger Delta region, on February 20, 2019. - Decades of oil spills has left the Ogoniland region in southern Nigeria an environmental disaster zone -- but now hopes are high of a rebirth of farming, fishing and clean water. (Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP) (Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)

A Pipeline Runs Through It. By Keith Fisher. Allen Lane; 768 pages; £35

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “A dirty business”

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