New book aims to continue Empire conversation for Sathnam

The novelist and journalist grew up in Wolverhampton and his poignant memoir The Boy with the Topknot became a best seller and was turned into a television drama.

He visited the city's Khalsa Academy to speak about his work and also take part in a discussion about the British Empire and multi-cultural Britain.

Sanghera, who is a Times features writer and columnist, wrote Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain in 2021.

It is a deep and personal journey through the darker sides of Britain's colonial past and a book which has engendered much debate as well as being the basis for a Channel 4 documentary.

He said that the aim of the book was to reflect on the view of imperial historians and how the view of Britain's history has been mis-interpreted to fit certain agendas, either positive or negative.

He said: "There is this culture war and a bunch of people who basically want to say that it doesn't matter what the experts think as this is what I think and they come up with lots of things that aren't true, like the empire wasn't racist, which was absolutely true.

"That would be a big surprise to every Victorian whoever lived, and they just want to focus of the positives of the British Empire, not the negatives.

"I think what I'm trying to say is what imperial historians are trying to say, which is that it is very complicated, but there were really dark episodes as well as positive episodes, but unfortunately, the far left and far right only want you to believe all the good things or all the bad things and nothing in-between."

The conversation for Sanghera has always been around the concept of teaching people about the Empire and making sure it has been taught properly to younger people.

This has included his new book Stolen History: The Truth About the British Empire and How it Shaped Us, which aims to tell the story of the Empire and introduce it to younger readers.

As part of this, the 46-year-old has taken on a set of talks at schools to talk about the book and his study of the Empire and said it was positive for young people to be able to learn about it.

He said: "I'm here to talk to kids about British Empire as it was something I didn't learn until my mid-40s and it's amazing that they are going to learn stuff that I never knew, from the Middle ages onwards.

"In this country, every couple of years, we seem to have a major scandal around racism, whether it's the Steven Lawrence enquiry or Windrush, and there is always an official report which always says the same thing.

"It usually says we need to teach imperial history better because then people will realise that we're a multi-cultural country because we had a multi-cultural Empire and we still don't teach it properly, but I think that is going to change and I've learned that from my school visits.

"I don't think we understand as a country that we are multi-cultural and there's an idea in the press and amongst some politicians that brown and black people came over here uninvited to take advantage of British hospitality, which has been a narrative of my life.

"However, we have been here for centuries and the relationships between British people and multi-cultural communities go back centuries, so the sooner people understand that in their school careers, the better as it will help to reduce a lot of racism at its core."

Sanghera said it wasn't his place to preach about it, but was more a position of encouraging people to learn and come to their own opinions, while being based on facts, rather than on fake history and false narratives.

He said: "You've got actual politicians, people like Rishi Sunak, who say we can't rewrite history, but the thing is that is what historians do, even the history of the Napoleonic wars are being rewritten as we speak.

"As our knowledge increases, our opinions change, and history is argument based, so inform yourself better in the actual facts and not on what you might read on Twitter.

"The book is for children aged nine to 11, but is also open to adults as this is a really complicated history that I think a lot of people didn't read at school and I hope it can open up Empireland for the younger generation."

Khalsa Academy in Millfields Road is less than a mile from Sanghera's childhood home in Ettingshall and close to Dudley Road, where he spent much of his childhood and which is the inspiration for his 2013 fictional novel Marriage Material. It deals with issues facing Asian people in the 1960s after settling in cities like Wolverhampton.