EMPIREWORLD: SATHNAM SANGHERA AUTHOR TALK

Fri 11 Oct, 5–6pm

At the Museum and Online

The in-person event will take place in the Taylorian Lecture Theatre
The online event will be held on Zoom

Booking is essential. Tickets below

With bestselling author and journalist, Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireworld, Empireland, The Boy with The Topknot, Marriage Material and more.

Colour photo of Sathnam Sanghera standing in front of a monument flanked by buildings, with flag bunting over the streets

Sathnam Sanghera in front of the statue of Clive of India in Shewsbury. Photo by Fred Windsor-Clive

In this special talk, based on his most recent book Empireworld, bestselling author and award-winning journalist Sathnam Sangera will discuss the international legacies of British empire.

From the creation of tea plantations to environmental destruction, conservation, and the connotations of Royal tours, he will explore just how deeply British imperialism is embedded into our world. For the book, Sathnam travelled the globe, from Barbados and Mauritius to India and Nigeria and beyond.

In a 25-minute keynote, followed by a conversation with historian Dr Catherine Phipps, he will discuss the impact of imperialism on British culture, how it’s time Britain was finally honest with itself about empire. The impacts of imperialism and cultural responses to it are also explored in our Money Talks exhibition, with its theme of art, society and power.

The author's book will be available to purchase at the event.

Sathnam Sanghera's Empireworld book cover showing the crowned British lion perched over the globe, in black and white

About Sathnam Sanghera:

Sathnam Sanghera was born to Punjabi immigrant parents in Wolverhampton in the 70s. He entered the education system unable to speak English, but went on to graduate from Christ's College Cambridge with a first-class degree in English Language and Literature.

He has been shortlisted for the Costa Book Award twice for his memoir The Boy with the Topknot and his novel Marriage Material.

Empireland was a Sunday Times bestseller and was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, was named a Book of the Year at the National Book Awards of 2022, and inspired both the Channel 4 series Empire State of the Mind and Sanghera's children's book about the British empire, Stolen History.

His latest book, Empireworld was published this spring and debuted at #2 on the Sunday Times bestseller list.