Empire

Niall Ferguson's acclaimed bestseller on the highs and lows of Britain's empire reveals the triumphs, deceits, decencies, kindnesses and cruelties. Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic achieve all this? And why did the empire on which the sun literally never set finally decline and fall?