Jan Morris traces the momentous decline and fall of the greatest of empires - from Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. With characteristic brilliance, this masterpiece of narrative history describes the long retreat and final dissolution of the British Empire.'The British Empire is fortunate in having found in Morris a chronicler and memorialist who can do it justice. Although it is a sad story, the telling of it is marvellously vigorous and compelling. Morris, like Edward Gibbon, writes with an inspired gusto, firmly rooted in erudition which carries the book into the realms of literature.' Sunday Telegraph