From this eminent historian, he narrates how, between 1830 and 1945, Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Italy exported their languages, laws, religions, cultures and economic systems to Africa.

Lawrence James was a founding member of the University of York and then took a research degree at Merton College, Oxford. After a distinguished teaching career he became a full-time writer in 1985 and has emerged as one of the outstanding narrative historians of his generation for works including The Rise and Fall of the British Empire and Churchill and Empire: Portrait of an Imperialist.