Argues that the British/Chinese relationship has shaped the modern world. While Britain dominated in the age of the Opium Wars, the balance has now decisively shifted.
The 60 years following the Portuguese arrival in the Moluccas in 1511 saw an epic global struggle for the sources and distribution of this new geyser of wealth. Told with verve and authority... read more
This complex man exposed horrors in the Congo and Amazon, winning renown and a knighthood. But his support for Irish Independence led to his execution for high treason.
A many-layered memoir from the Pulitzer-winning author of The Sympathizer: the American dream, the Vietnam War, the life of the refugee, adoption, violence, identity.
He ruled an area of the Indian subcontinent greater than anyone until the British 2000 years later; famously he renounced war for Buddhism and promoted religious toleration throughout his mu... read more
Accompanies an exhibition at the RA about competing representations of empire, featuring fifty artists from Turner and Reynolds to Frank Bowling, Lubaina Himid and Kara Walker.
This rich historical analysis argues that the Enlightenment was a failure on its own terms. Terror, revolution, corruption, gross commercial excess and Empire prevailed instead of Reason.
Born in Kenya, the author was two when the Mau Mau uprising began. A powerful memoir of this very difficult period and the end of empire in Kenya.The author worked for many years for the BBC... read more
After the Armistice in 1918, the Allies' support for anyone contra-German mutated into anti-Bolshevik Intervention. Forces were deployed in Archangel, the Caucasus, the Far East and elsewher... read more
The story of the first contact between the Haida and other indigenous peoples of the Pacific North West with Europeans - and what came after. Told very powerfully in a graphic form that comb... read more
A teacher of photography on a New England campus remembers his West African childhood: Cole may be writing about himself here. The novel is a subtle, quiet exploration of memory, the passage... read more
The British empire observed through the lens of a single day: the 29th September 1923, when the Mandate for Palestine became law and the British empire reached its maximum extent, just as i... read more
From the perspective of the people who have worked and lived there since 1862, when it was a fishing village, rather than of the imperial powers who controlled it.
Somerset Maugham appears as one of two narrators in this atmospheric novel of love, truth, secrecy and betrayal in 1920s' colonial Penang. Eng's airy storytelling is a rare gift: he gives hi... read more
Another slim, powerful novel from this excellent writer: as in The Order of the Day, he shows the web of overlapping and competing interests amongst politicians, industrialists and financier... read more
A fascinating exploration of travel in C17th India: merchant-cum-gentleman Thomas Roe is whisked away as ambassador to Mughal India where he plays the dangerous (and often disappointing) gam... read more
Unlike Dalrymple's The Anarchy, this deals just with the East India Company's early years. Howarth argues that it was more European than English in spirit.
Essays on cultural and artistic exchange in the age of imperialism as European powers vied for domination of the oceanic routes between Asia and the Americas. Illustrated.
This is a fascinating illustrated book on the often elaborate and arresting labels used by British textile manufacturers when exporting to India during the Raj.
The Chagos Archipelago was appropriated from Mauritius by Britain in the 1960s and its inhabitants deported (with one suitcase each) to Mauritius and the UK in 1967-1973 to make way for the ... read more
A brilliant narrative of the interconnected lives of two Renaissance Portuguese men whose travels to India and China unseated contemporary certainties. Dazzling.
An anthology of the writings by the often overlooked women of the Raj, many of whom flourished in India - Fanny Parks, Emily Eden et alia. A fascinating counterpoint to the stereotypical vie... read more