Book description
Jan Morris tells the epic story of the rise of the British Empire,
from Queen Victoria's accession in 1837 to her Diamond Jubilee in
1897. In this celebrated masterwork she vividly evokes every aspect of
the 'great adventure', ranging from ships and botanical gardens to
hill stations and sugar plantations, as she subtly traces the impact
of empire on places as diverse as Sierra Leone and Fiji, Zululand and
the Canadian prairies. 'How many professional historians can write
books that give so much pleasure? This is a book planned by an
architect, fitted together by a craftsman, and polished by a
cabinet-maker.' Sunday Times
Jan Morris was born in 1926 of a Welsh father and an English mother,
and when she is not travelling she lives with her partner Elizabeth
Morris in the top left-hand corner of Wales, between the mountains and
the sea. Her books include Coronation Everest, Venice, The Pax
Britannica Trilogy (Heaven's Command, Pax Britannica, and Farewell the
Trumpets), and Conundrum. She is also the author of six books about
cities and countries, two autobiographical books, several volumes of
collected travel essays and the unclassifiable Trieste and the Meaning
of Nowhere. A Writer's World, a collection of her travel writing and
reportage from over five decades, was published in 2003. Hav, her novel,
was published in a new and expanded form in 2006.
