Winner of a Bronze Award at the Spoken Word Awards 2003

Award-winning historian Simon Schama completes his monumental three-volume history of Britain, which accompanies the acclaimed television epic. In The Fate of Empire, Schama illuminates the period of British history from 1770 to 2000 through a variety of historical themes – including the advance of technology and industry, women's increasing role in society, and the burgeoning British Empire – and key British characters such as Wordsworth, Burke, Queen Victoria, Churchill and George Orwell. Lesser-known lives are also illuminated, such as Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman doctor, ‘Mother’ Mary Seacole, the forgotten Caribbean nurse and heroine of the Crimea War, and Dadabhai Naoroji, who, in c.1890, became the first Asian MP.