Book description
The influence of the British Empire is everywhere, from the very
existence of the United Kingdom to the ethnic composition of our
cities. It affects everything, from Prime Ministers' decisions to send
troops to war to the adventurers we admire. From the sports we think
we're good at to the architecture of our buildings; the way we travel
to the way we trade; the hopeless losers we will on, and the food we
hunger for, the empire is never very far away.
In this acute and witty analysis, Jeremy Paxman, bestselling author
of The English goes to the very heart of empire. As he
describes the selection process for colonial officers ('intended to
weed out the cad, the feeble and the too clever') the importance of
sport, the sweating domestic life of the colonial officer's wife ('the
challenge with cooking meat was "to grasp the fleeting moment
between toughness and putrefaction when the joint may possibly prove
eatable"') and the crazed end for General Gordon of Khartoum,
Paxman brings brilliantly to life the tragedy and comedy of Empire and
reveals its profound and lasting effect on our nation and ourselves.
Jeremy Paxman was born in Yorkshire and educated at Cambridge. He is
an award-winning journalist who spent ten years reporting from overseas,
notably for Panorama. He is the author of five books including The
English. He is the presenter of
Newsnight
and
University Challenge
and has presented BBC documentaries on various subjects including
Victorian art and Wilfred Owen.
