Colonialism and imperialism

The West does not understand African economics. In a fearless, funny polemic, a historian exposes the blinkered assumptions of centuries of Western interventions on the continent.

‘I witnessed the dwindling glow of the British Empire. I saw small men entrusted with great jobs, playing with the destiny of millions’

The oral history of Britain’s first West Indian immigrants and their descendants

Winner of the Whitley Award for Best Natural History Book 2022

A compelling, funny, first-hand account of Australia's wonderfully unique mammals and how our perceptions impact their future.

The Sunday Times Bestseller

A new assessment of the West’s colonial record

In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the ‘End of History’ – that the global dominance of liberal democracy had been secured forever.

WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY

‘A narrative of startling originality … As discussions of Britain’s colonial legacy become increasingly polarised, we are in ever more need of nuanced books like this one’ SAM DALRYMPLE, SPECTATOR

‘The way Robert Peal describes Georgian England, you’d be mad not to want to live there yourself’ GUARDIAN

WINNER OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE FOR GLOBAL CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN-HESSEL TILTMAN PRIZE 2021

LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2021

Shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021

‘Rarely has family history been so vivid’ JENNY UGLOW

‘An extraordinarily original work’ AMANDA FOREMAN

The deadliest animal of all time meets the world's most legendary hunter in a classic battle between man and wild. But this pulse-pounding narrative is also a nuanced story of how colonialism and environmental destruction upset the natural order, placing man, tiger and nature on a collision course.

WINNER OF THE 2019 PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZE

The fascinating history of Christopher Columbus’s illegitimate son Hernando, guardian of his father’s flame, courtier, bibliophile and catalogue supreme, whose travels took him to the heart of 16th-century Europe’ Honor Clerk, Spectator, Books of the Year

CUNDILL PRIZE 2018 WINNER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2018

‘Enlightening, compassionate, superb’ John le Carré

A visionary life and times of Joseph Conrad, and of our global world, from one of the best historians writing today.