About the Author

Margot Finn is Professor of Modern British History at UCL. The author of After Chartism (1993) and The Character of Credit (2003), she has published extensively on the families and material culture of the East India Company. A former editor of the Journal of British Studies, she is President of the Royal Historical Society. Kate Smith is Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century History at the University of Birmingham. Kate specialises in material culture in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain. She published Material Goods, Moving Hands: Perceiving Production in England, 1700-1830 in 2014.

Reviews

'By an impressive process of distillation Margot Finn and Kate Smith have put together a coherent survey of the material traces of old India hands - the lucky ones who survived to be repatriated and to make their mark anew in Britain - compiled from a refreshing variety of perspectives.'
Journal of the History of Collections

'Invaluable for anyone interested in how the British empire shaped the material culture of British country houses and the families who built, owned and lived in them...'
The Georgian: The Magazine of the Georgian Group

'Recommended for many new and interesting insights into a very wide subject.'
Chowkidar

'This immensely engaging volume... not only contributes to ongoing debates about the place of heritage in modern society and its role in the making of British culture and identity, but also sheds new light on how we package heritage for public consumption, thereby creating new narratives and histories. It showcases public history at its best.'
H-Net Reviews