Such levity is found throughout Empireland. Protesters throw the statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in 2020. It was like being a fan of a really obscure pop star, and they turn out to be Britney Spears!”

“The first time I’ve ever been relevant in my life. “I started out thinking this was stuff only I was interested in, but by the end of writing, it was on the news every day, which totally freaked me out,” he says, with a laugh.

The events prompted Sathnam Sanghera to embark on another rewrite of his urgent new book Empireland, a remarkable look at how British imperialism has not only shaped the world, but also the way in which Britain still regards itself. Not only did it reveal to a wider public the embarrassing truth about the darker elements of British history, but it also sparked a divisive culture war about the whole notion of celebrating the British Empire. Of all the seismic images taken in the past, momentous year, the sight of British slave trader Edward Colston's statue being toppled into Br istol Harbour was surely one of the most hard-hitting.

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