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?

Ferguson examines the roles of "pirates, planters, missionaries, mandarins, bankers and bankrupts" in the creation ofhistory's laregest empire. He writes with splendid panache and a seemingly effortless, debonair wit.