The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997 by Piers Brendon

“While there may be many books on the British Empire, this is undoubtedly the most entertaining and the best. This is the story of the British Empire, warts and all.” This is not a dry, blow-by-blow account of Britain’s impact upon the outside world. “Brendon packs his narrative history of Great Britain with adventures, eccentrics, and other interesting characters.”

A huge and hugely impressive book, mighty in scale as its subject, elegantly written and rigorous in its research.” Not since Jan Morris’s Pax Britannica trilogy has anyone recounted these events with such sustained panache. “A compelling and spectacularly detailed retelling of imperial ‘rise’ as well as fall. “ spins an epic yarn of heroes, villains, dreamers and fools who risked and often lost their lives to establish and maintain an empire for the glory of the crown and who often enriched themselves in the process.” The settings are exotic, the cast of thousands full of the most eccentric, egotistical, paranoid, swashbuckling players you are likely to meet in any history. At once popular and scholarly, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire demonstrates a thorough command of the historical literature.” Compelling reading from start to finish: it is the best one-volume account of the British Empire. “Only a very confident historian with a massive, comprehensive, and thoroughly researched manuscript would willingly invite comparisons with the British historian Edward Gibbon. A rich panorama of triumph, splendor and folly that is truly global in scale.” Brendon’s book is history with the nasty bits left in.” He captures the nuanced relations between the English and the peoples they ruled.” doesn’t draw a purely bleak picture, or present a bill of indictment. Every page is consistently readable and stimulating. Many accounts of the British empire have appeared in recent years, but few are as entertaining as this.” Pointed, sharply drawn, wide in its sweep. Brendon a gift for catching the moments of history that people treasure.” A splendid popular history of the British Empire.

A Washington Post Book World Notable Book

The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997 by Piers Brendon