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Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain / Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe
Please Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original ISBN and Cover Image In this Listing shall be Dispatched Titles In This How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe [Hardcover] How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain Sathnam Sanghera 2 Books Collection Set (Empireland How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain & Empireworld How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe [Hardcover]): How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe [Hardcover]: The empire's influence upon the quarter of the planet it occupied, and its gravitational influence upon the world outside it, has been from the spread of Christianity by missionaries, to nearly 1 in 3 driving on the left side of the road, to the origins of international law. Yet Britain's idea of its imperial history and the world's experience of it are two very different things. With an inimitable combination of wit, political insight and personal honesty. How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern EMPIRE explains our distrust of cleverness. EMPIRE explains Britain's particular brand of racism. Strangely hidden from view, the British Empire remains a subject of both shame and glorification. In his bestselling book, Sathnam Sanghera shows how our imperial past is from how we live and think to the foundation of the NHS and even our response to the COVID-19 crisis. At a time of great division, when we are arguing about what it means to be British.
816 pages, Paperback
Published January 27, 2024
3 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Sathnam Sanghera
14 books265 followersSathnam Sanghera was born to Punjabi parents in the West Midlands in 1976, attended Wolverhampton Grammar School and graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge with a first class degree in English Language and Literature in 1998. Before becoming a writer he (among other things) worked at a burger chain, a hospital laundry, a market research firm, a sewing factory and a literacy project in New York.
Between 1998 and 2006 he was at The Financial Times, where he worked (variously) as a news reporter in the UK and the US, specialised in writing about the media industries, worked across the paper as Chief Feature Writer, and wrote an award-winning weekly business column. Sathnam joined The Times as a columnist and feature writer in 2007, reviews cars for Management Today and has presented a number of radio documentaries for the BBC.
Sathnam’s first book, The Boy With The Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Biography Award, the 2009 PEN/Ackerley Prize and named 2009 Mind Book of the Year. His novel, Marriage Material, has been shortlisted for a 2014 South Bank Sky Arts Award and a 2013 Costa Book Award, been longlisted for the 2014 Desmond Elliot Prize, picked by The Sunday Times, The Observer and Metro as one of the novels of 2013, and is being developed as a multi-part TV drama by Kudos.
He has won numerous prizes for his journalism, including Article of the Year in the 2005 Management Today Writing Awards, Newspaper Feature of the Year in the 2005 Workworld Media Awards, HR Journalist of the Year in the 2006 and 2009 Watson Wyatt Awards for Excellence and the accolade of Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2002.
He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for services to journalism by The University of Wolverhampton in September 2009 and a President’s Medal by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2010, while GQ Magazine named him as one of “The Men of Next 25 years” in 2013, with writer Jonathan Coe saying that “whether he’s writing autobiography or fiction, Sathnam is busy carving out his own literary niche – in the multicultural British Midlands – which he explores with incredible grace, generosity and humour”.
The Boy With The Topknot, was originally published by Penguin in hardback as If You Don’t Know Me By Now. He is trustee and board chair for Creative Access, a charity which helps find internships in the creative industries for talented young people from under-represented backgrounds. He lives in London.
Between 1998 and 2006 he was at The Financial Times, where he worked (variously) as a news reporter in the UK and the US, specialised in writing about the media industries, worked across the paper as Chief Feature Writer, and wrote an award-winning weekly business column. Sathnam joined The Times as a columnist and feature writer in 2007, reviews cars for Management Today and has presented a number of radio documentaries for the BBC.
Sathnam’s first book, The Boy With The Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Biography Award, the 2009 PEN/Ackerley Prize and named 2009 Mind Book of the Year. His novel, Marriage Material, has been shortlisted for a 2014 South Bank Sky Arts Award and a 2013 Costa Book Award, been longlisted for the 2014 Desmond Elliot Prize, picked by The Sunday Times, The Observer and Metro as one of the novels of 2013, and is being developed as a multi-part TV drama by Kudos.
He has won numerous prizes for his journalism, including Article of the Year in the 2005 Management Today Writing Awards, Newspaper Feature of the Year in the 2005 Workworld Media Awards, HR Journalist of the Year in the 2006 and 2009 Watson Wyatt Awards for Excellence and the accolade of Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2002.
He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for services to journalism by The University of Wolverhampton in September 2009 and a President’s Medal by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2010, while GQ Magazine named him as one of “The Men of Next 25 years” in 2013, with writer Jonathan Coe saying that “whether he’s writing autobiography or fiction, Sathnam is busy carving out his own literary niche – in the multicultural British Midlands – which he explores with incredible grace, generosity and humour”.
The Boy With The Topknot, was originally published by Penguin in hardback as If You Don’t Know Me By Now. He is trustee and board chair for Creative Access, a charity which helps find internships in the creative industries for talented young people from under-represented backgrounds. He lives in London.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 2, 2025
Empireland is a book that genuinely reshaped how I see Britain’s past and present. Sathnam Sanghera manages to weave together history, memoir, and social commentary in a way that is both deeply readable and profoundly illuminating. What impressed me most was the balance—he doesn’t lecture, but instead guides you through the hidden threads of empire that run through everything from the NHS to our street names, culture, politics, and even personal identity.
It’s a book that challenges you without alienating you, full of moments that make you stop and reconsider what you thought you knew. Sanghera writes with warmth and humanity, and there’s a real generosity in his approach: he allows for complexity and contradiction, which makes the narrative feel honest rather than polemical.
I came away feeling unsettled, enlightened, and oddly hopeful. Empireland should be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand modern Britain—not just its history, but how that history still shapes who we are today.
It’s a book that challenges you without alienating you, full of moments that make you stop and reconsider what you thought you knew. Sanghera writes with warmth and humanity, and there’s a real generosity in his approach: he allows for complexity and contradiction, which makes the narrative feel honest rather than polemical.
I came away feeling unsettled, enlightened, and oddly hopeful. Empireland should be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand modern Britain—not just its history, but how that history still shapes who we are today.
Displaying 1 of 1 review