Empire: The Soul of Britannia

Paxman asks how a tiny island in the North Atlantic came to rule over a quarter of the world's population. He travels to India, where local soldiers and maharajahs helped a handful of British traders to take over vast areas of land. In Egypt, Paxman explores Britain as a temporary peace-keeper whose visit turned into a seventy-year occupation.

Paxman continues his story of Britain's empire by looking at how traders, conquerors and settlers spread the British way of life around the world by creating a very British home. He visits Singapore, Canada, And Kenya to observe the many ways the British spread their culture.

Paxman traces the growth of a peculiarly British type of hero: adventurer, gentleman, amateur, sportsman, and decent chap, and the British obsession with sport. He travels to East Africa, following the paths of Victorian explorers searching for the source of the Nile, and to Khartoum in Sudan to tell the story of General Gordon.

Paxman looks at how the empire began as a pirates' treasure hunt. Privateers such as Henry Morgan robbed Spanish ships, largely in the Caribbean. Their naval expertise supported an informal empire based on trade and eventually developed into a global financial network.

Paxman relates how a desire for conquest developed into a mission to improve mankind in other places, especially in Africa, by introducing benefits of British society and education. In Central Africa, he travels in the footsteps of David Livingstone who, although a failure as a missionary, became a legend.