A SUNDAY TIMES THE TIMES SPECTATOR NEW STATESMAN TLS BOOK OF THE YEARA richly panoramic exploration of the British experience of India . hugely researched and elegantly written sensitive to the ironies of the past and brimming with colourful details Dominic Sandbrook Sunday TimesThe British in this book lived in India from shortly after the reign of Elizabeth I until well into the reign of Elizabeth II. Who were they What drove these men and women to risk their lives on long voyages down the Atlantic and across the Indian Ocean or later via the Suez Canal And when they got to India what did they do and how did they liveThis book explores the lives of the many different sorts of Briton who went to India viceroys and offcials soldiers and missionaries planters and foresters merchants engineers teachers and doctors.