Jan Morris tells the epic story of the rise of the British Empire, from Queen Victoria's accession in 1837 to her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. In this celebrated masterwork she vividly evokes every aspect of the 'great adventure', ranging from ships and botanical gardens to hill stations and sugar plantations, as she subtly traces the impact of empire on places as diverse as Sierra Leone and Fiji, Zululand and the Canadian prairies. Jan Morris was born in 1926 of a Welsh father and an English mother, and when she is not travelling she lives with her partner Elizabeth Morris in the top left-hand corner of Wales, between the mountains and the sea. Her books include Coronation Everest , Venice , The Pax Britannica Trilogy ( Heaven's Command , Pax Britannica , and Farewell the Trumpets ), and Conundrum . She is also the author of six books about cities and countries, two autobiographical books, several volumes of collected travel essays and, more recently, the unclassifiable Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere . A Writer's World , a collection of her travel writing and reportage from over five decades, was published in 2003. Hav, her novel, was published in a new and expanded form in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Her most recent book, Contact!, about the people she encountered on her many travels, was published in 2009. Used Book in Good Condition