This [American] empire will not last. No empire does. If empires lasted, the whole world would be speaking ancient Persian today.
You know, when I was a girl, the idea that the British Empire could ever end was absolutely inconceivable. And it just disappeared, like all the other empires.
Empires inevitably fall, and when they do, history judges them for the legacies they leave behind.
Every empire has to get sucked down the drain. As a British person, I know how it feels.
I hate Imperialism whether British or Japanese or Burmese.
When I was young and the empire was beginning to disintegrate, the idea was absolutely unbelievable, particularly to children who'd been taught that the sun never set... that's what all my books are about, the end of empire.
Were you to read the British press today, you would learn that the British Empire never forgets its defeats.
We have got over our imperial past, and the withdrawal symptoms.
Empire in the past was always a far harsher and much more accident-prone business than conventional history books imply. And the costs of these overseas invasions were borne not just by those on the receiving end but - frequently - by ordinary, vulnerable people among or associated with the invaders.
