Bishopston Not A Book Group  : September

The British Empire An exploration within our group of what, if anything, we each understand of our empirical history and its relevance today. On our sailing circumnavigation Annie and I came across the influence of the British Empire or British foreign policy in most of the countries we visited and were astounded to discover the extent of this influence. It occurred to us how little this influence is understood today (within the UK) and how remarkably little it features in our historical teaching (in the school curriculum). The anchor - and inspiration for this topic - is 'Empireland' by Sathnam Sangheera that is a beautifully written exploration of the impact of empire within the UK that I was immediately drawn to, given our sailing experiences. With no preconceptions or axe to grind I thought it might be interesting to explore the topic from individual perspectives given its influence in so many current issues - identity, race, immigration, history, reparations etc etc