T he British Empire was and is many things to many people: a civilising endeavour, a bringer of peace, an exploitative force or a project based on white supremacy. Arguments exist for each characterisation. But there is one thing that the British Empire is not: completely over.

This magazine was published by the Education Department in Nigeria with contributions from other government departments. It was concerned with all sorts of educational, geographical and cultural aspects of life in the colony of Nigeria. This was to be the last of the magazines for a while due to the war. Two new books consider the “here” and “there”. “One Fine Day” is a sprawling account of the British Empire by Matthew Parker, a historian. It travels like the never-setting imperial sun across Asia, Africa and outposts of the “new world” in the Caribbean. The book’s organising principle is a day—September 29th 1923—when the British Empire reached its maximum territorial extent. The portrait is achieved with a wide-angle lens, but the choice of a single day also brings focus.

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Elkins, who was allowed access to these archives, knew her work on the Kenyan insurrection “was part of a much bigger story,” one about England’s broader use of “legalized lawlessness” to justify violent suppression of colonized populations across its vast empire and later to destroy or obscure the evidence. What lingering effects, Elkins wondered, did these tactics have on today’s world? Put another way, what is the British Empire’s legacy of violence?

This often gruesome history is bookended by two trials. The Mau Mau court case and the trial of Warren Hastings, the first governor of Bengal, more than 200 years earlier. Hastings was impeached by the Whig MP Edmund Burke on charges of extortion, embezzlement and unlawful killing, from all of which he was ultimately exonerated. Elkins identifies that seven-year legal proceeding as the moment when the British government and its elite intellectual culture convinced itself of the principle that guided future conquests: that the means of sustaining power always justified the end. After that is a section on fiction writers who have written about The British Empire or an aspect of British imperialism in some way. It does not list all the books written by these authors but only those connected to The British Empire in some way. An ex- and an unconventional soldier who was fascinated by the decline of the upper and officer class at the tail end of empire. This magazine was published by the Education Department in Nigeria with contributions from other government departments. It was concerned with all sorts of educational, geographical and cultural aspects of life in the colony of Nigeria.This was a text book written and published during the baptism of the First World War. It was written by James Williamson, it spans from the Tudor age to the outbreak of the war. Interestingly, it has some very nice maps to illustrate the growth of the empire over the years. Jeff Shaara dazzled readers with his bestselling novels Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure, and Gone for Soldiers. Now the acclaimed author who illuminated the Civil War and the Mexican-American War brilliantly brings to life the American Revolution, creating a superb saga of the men who helped to forge the destiny of a nation. Jeremy Paxman wrote a book to accompany his BBC TV Series. Despite its subtitle, it has a wide approach that hits many of the subtleties of the wider imperial experience. It is thematic rather than chronological, but still covers a lot of ground. Jan (or James) Morris has written one of the more elegant sweeps of the imperial story. The style, elegance and organisation of the prose really brings this trilogy to life. Highly recommended for those ready for a bit more substance to their overview of The British Empire.