Empire (What Ruling the World Did to the British)

The influence of the British Empire is everywhere, from the very existence of the United Kingdom to the ethnic composition of its cities. It affects everything, from Prime Ministers' decisions to send troops to war to the adventurers they admire. From the sports they think they're good at to the architecture of their buildings; the way they travel to the way they trade; the hopeless losers they will on, and the food they hunger for, the empire is never very far away. In this acute and witty analysis, Jeremy Paxman 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 sports, 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 the nation and its people.