How did the English come to see themselves as an imperial race with a mission to conquer and 'civilise'? Kathryn Tidrick's highly acclaimed book explores the origins of the ideal of imperial rule and the effect it had on the character of the English ruling classes. From the Lawrence brothers of the Punjab, Rajah James Brooke of Sarawak and Mountbatten to Frederick Courtenay Selous, Elspeth Huxley and Cecil Rhodes, Tidrick illuminates some of the extraordinary lives and actions of the people that formed and governed the British Empire, from India to Africa and beyond. Enlightening and and entertaining, "Empire and the English Character" sheds a unique and intensely revealing light on the mindsets that forged an empire.