About the Author

Tristram Hunt is director of the Victoria & Albert Museum and one of Britain's best-known historians. He served as MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central from 2010 to 2017, and between October 2013 and September 2015 as Shadow Secretary of State for Education. He is a senior lecturer in British history at Queen Mary, University of London, and has written numerous series for radio and television. His previous books include The English Civil War- At First Hand, The Frock-Coated Communist- The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels and Ten Cities that Made an Empire, between them published in more than a dozen languages.

Reviews

A grand history of the British empire ... this is a book about ideas, for all that it is rich in architectural description, economic fact and colourful anecdote ... well-written, cleverly constructed and beautifully balanced
*Spectator*

A fascinating and readable book
*Independent*

Ingenious and timely ... Hunt skilfully constructs his itinerary to provide a lively and cliché-busting survey of imperial history ... he uses the urban lens to terrific effect
*Guardian*

An original and inventive approach to tackling empire ... This is a book which is experienced through the life on the streets, in the buildings and across the physical layout of large urban centres, where jostled men and women of different races and creeds ... readable and engaging ... It is a work of great ambition ... impressive
*Standpoint*