Felipe Fernández-Armesto

All They Could Eat

The Hungry Empire: How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World

By

The Bodley Head 400pp £25 order from our bookshop

Peering between the curtains of his viceregal railway carriage, Lord Curzon saw so few emaciated corpses that he reckoned reports of famine in India must be greatly exaggerated. Yet, decorously outside his range of vision, perhaps as many as sixteen million Indians starved to death in the late 19th century. An empire’s most basic obligation is to try to keep unrebellious subjects alive for a reasonable span. Few succeed in doing that.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter