Outposts:  Journeys To The Surviving Relics Of The British Empire

I read this book previously under another name [1], and I have to say this book is at least mildly worth reading twice.  Admittedly, this book is not identical to The Sun Never Sets.  For one, it is an updated version that includes the author’s revised thoughts and reflections about British imperialism and some trips to areas that he had not been able to visit on his first go around.  Also, of interest to me particularly is the way that the author faced some repercussions for writing the way he did.  In particular, the people of one of Britain’s Atlantic Islands refused to welcome the writer back because he had written about a long ago love affair some girl on the island had and her neighbors thought, understandably, that he had done her wrong by writing about it and bringing embarrassment upon her (and them).  The author does come off a big gossipy here, and it is no surprise that he spent some time in jail during the course of his travels to Diego Garcia and the Falkland Islands (the first because of being stubborn and the second because of having very bad timing).

This particular book is about 350 pages long and it discusses all of the territories that are still run by Britain’s colonial office.  This includes the British Indian Ocean Territory (2), home of Diego Garcia, Tristan da Cunha (3), Gibraltar (4), Ascension Island (5), St. Helena (6), Hong Kong (7, an emeritus colony), Bermuda (8), the British West Indies (9), which include the Turks & Caicos, Cayman Islands, Anguilla, and the British Virgin Islands, the Falkland Islands (10), and Pitcairn and other territories (11).  The author discusses his plans for travel (1) and how things got lengthy, provides some reflections and conclusions about the likely sad fate of British Imperialism (12), and in each of the various discussions of colonies he provides a great deal of insight about their history as well as his own reflections on reading and observation about these place, most of which would be well worth visiting even if some of them are quite remote.  Like many writers, the author seems to think that calling something Florida-like is about the worst insult that can be given to a place like the Cayman Islands, for example, whose financial wealth and lack of culture and natural beauty the author does not find to be particularly exciting given his preference for ramshackle colonies.

Admittedly, despite the fact that quite a few of these places are difficult to get to, I would like to visit many of them myself, especially because of their remoteness and isolation.  If the author seems a bit of a tool, he clearly sees some major fault with the British colonial office in not living up to the charters that islands like St. Helena have and in their longstanding refusal to grant many of their colonies’ people the full right of residency within the home country, despite the fact that the colonies are so small that it would present no burden to the country as a whole.  The author seems unwilling to praise American imperialism for providing a better standard of living than British colonies have, but wherever he travels he sees a lack of interest in providing transportation and other infrastructure, a tendency for Americans to muscle in on those places which are particularly strategic (Ascension and Diego Garcia among them), and a complete inability on the part of the British to think of a way that the colonials could be able to do productive work that would benefit themselves and the British Empire as a whole.  Rather than showing a scene of grandeur, this book shows an empire that is dead on its feet, tottering and refusing to completely fall despite having no strength or life left in it, and that is something sad to see.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016/01/17/book-review-the-sun-never-sets/