Sathnam Sanghera on the British Empire and its legacy

Sathnam Sanghera tells us about his new book, Empireland, on the historical and contemporary legacy of the British Empire. Sathnam’s book asks where the history of empire sits in the UK’s current education system and cultural debate, at a time when concepts of sovereignty and national greatness are being mobilised – ‘Take Back Control’; ‘Make American Great Again’ – and governments across the world seem to turn to history to tell only positive stories about national identity. Sathnam also tells us about moving between his various roles as journalist, novelist, memoirist, popular historian and broadcasting, and introduces us to Sake Dean Mahomed, the first Indian author writing in England, who also opened the first curry restaurant and set himself up as a Brighton ‘Shampooing Surgeon’, leading to what Sathnam calls ‘dangerous shampooing’. ‘He was the Neil Armstrong of my field’, as Sathnam puts it in his book.