One Fine Day

The story of the British Empire at its maximum territorial extent, including a wider range of voices of the colonised than have ever been recorded before 'Marvellous... escapes the inane, balance-sheet view of Empire and sees it in its full complexity' Sathnam Sanghera , author of Empireland'There is something Shakespearian about Matthew Parker's insightful argument that it was at exactly the time that the British Empire reached its greatest territorial size that the factors coalesced which were to destroy it. Parker has rendered a signal service by convincingly pinpointing the exact fulcrum moment in its half-millennium long history.'Andrew Roberts 'An engrossing and wide-ranging account of the zenith of the British Empire - with all the contradictions, brittleness, ambition and hubris that moment entailed. Across Continents and characters, Matthew Parker provides a new, global history of British imperialism which feels both epic and immediate' Tristram Hunt'Extraordinary. Matthew Parker's magisterial sweep through one day of British imperial history and culture plunges us into the global complexity of the British Empire, bringing the world of a century ago to fresh, vivid life. An astonishing achievement' Alex Von Tunzelmann 'Breathtaking... vital and important. A wonderful read' PETER FRANKOPAN'Marvellous... escapes the inane, balance-sheet view of Empire and sees its full complexity' SATHNAM SANGHERA'Excellent... his mastery of detail is impeccable' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Sunday Times'Extraordinary... [brings] the world of a century ago to fresh, vivid life' ALEX VON TUNZELMANNTHE STORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE AT ITS MAXIMUM TERRITORIAL EXTENTOn Saturday 29 September 1923, the Palestine Mandate became law and the British Empire now covered a scarcely credible quarter of the world's land mass, containing 460 million people. It was the largest empire the world had ever seen. But it was beset by debt and doubts. This book is a new way of looking at the British Empire. It immerses the reader in the contemporary moment, focusing on particular people and stories from that day, gleaned from newspapers, letters, diaries, official documents, magazines, films and novels: from a remote Pacific island facing the removal of its entire soil, across Australia, Burma, India and Kenya to London and the West Indies.In some ways, the issues of a hundred years ago are with us still: debates around cultural and ethnic identity in a globalised world; how to manage multi-ethnic political entities; racism; the divisive co-opting of religion for political purposes; the dangers of ignorance. In others, it is totally alien. What remains extraordinary is the Empire's ability to reveal the most compelling human stories. Never before has there been a book which contains such a wide spread of vivid experiences from both colonised and coloniser: from the grandest governors to the humblest migrants, policemen and nurses.