I loved the book... but it was very short, with more room devoted to simple illustrations than the actual text. And the text was often just a portion of one page.

Never-the-less, James has a great way with words and what he shares is both educational, embarrassing and infuriating!

History isn't, and shouldn't be, just limited to the happy and comfortable bits.

What a great read, nice to know the British government have always been corrupt lying assholes.

Wow, we really were bellends!!

I always assumed that something was missing from our history that we were taught at school, and here it partially is. Now to find out more

Should be mandatory reading for anyone who doesn't understand why many people have a poor opinion of us Brits!!!!

Over it's long history, Britain has behaved...badly (to wildly understate the case) many times. This book offers a series of examples, written in an entertaining way. It's not intended to be a comprehensive look at any of these events, nor is it a complete list of things Britain did that were awful. It is, however, an entertaining read and an interesting list of topics for further reading if desired, and a pretty good primer on why historians say "East India Company" when someone acts like corporate greed and lack of ethics is a new thing. (Spoiler alert - it's very much not.)

Really enjoyed this one. Funny and informative although it's definitely a very bare-bones version of events. As an American I wasn't familiar with a lot of the things talked about here so that was fine for me but if you're British it might not necessarily be new information. Would definitely recommend listening to the audiobook, the narrator does a great job.