Description

The British Empire stole a lot of stuff. Much of it still sits in museums, galleries and private collections today, accompanied by calm labels and polite plaques. The reality, however, is far messier.

The British Museum alone holds eight million objects, many taken in ways that were anything but legitimate. When award-winning journalist and author Marc Fennell encounters one such item-a mechanical tiger that mauls a British soldier when you turn the handle-he asks the obvious question: What is this? And how on earth did it end up here?

With wit, empathy and forensic curiosity, Stuff the British Stole embarks on a globetrotting investigation into the true stories behind some of the world’s most famous-and infamous-museum pieces. From the pyramids of Egypt and Tuscan marble quarries to Kenyan torture chambers, these objects reveal histories of power, violence, resistance and survival that continue to shape our world.

Part travelogue, part true crime, part reckoning with empire, this book strips away the plaques to uncover the stories museums rarely tell-and challenges us to see the past, and ourselves, like never before.

Publisher Review

The antidote to A History of the World in 100 Objects. Marc Fennell investigates a single cultural artefact in each episode of his new podcast, thus exposing what he calls the “not-so-polite history” of the British empire. The latest show uses pekinese dogs to take us to 1860 and the British-Chinese opium wars; previous episodes explain the British theft of Benin’s bronzes, and how Tipu’s Tiger ended up in the V&A. Fennell is immensely entertaining, his podcasts are always gripping and this is an excellent series that uses history, colonialism and art to examine where we are today. Recommended. * Miranda Sawyer, The Guardian, about the STBS podcast *