THE days of the British Empire may be long gone. But it was still an important part of our colonial and imperial history – and that is obvious in this collection of Charles Allen s works. The British experience in the days of Empire are taken from his ear

THE days of the British Empire may be long gone. But it was still an important part of our colonial and imperial history - and that is obvious in this collection of Charles Allen's works. The British experience in the days of Empire are taken from his earlier writings: Plain Tales from the Raj, Tales from the South China Seas and Tales from the Dark Continent. Allen, who was born in India, gives an evocative glimpe into the lost days of The Raj which, as we know, was for 200 years the jewel in the British imperial crown. He explores, too, the British venture across Africa and its involvement in the Far East around the South China Sea when probably the last generation of adventure seeking men and women discovered an exotic and intoxicating world. 3/5