MARK TURNER holds on tight for a mesmerising display of Neath-born ragtime virtuosity
The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, by William Dalrymple
Timely exposure of rapacious imperialist plunder in India
Uncivilising mission: Painting of Robert Clive, EIC official and military commander, after the battle of Plassey in 1757, where many Bengalis
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ALAN MORRISON introduces a UK poet whose despised daytime occupation provides the subject for his writing
MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
PAUL DONOVAN recommends three new books that explore the human relationship with nature
Doomed adolescents, when the missing person is you, classic whodunnit, and an anti-capitalist eco-thriller
WILL STONE takes a ticket to indie disco heaven, but misses the rarely performed tunes
THIS excellent chronicle of the rise and fall of the East India Company has real global resonance today.
The East India Company (EIC) was in many ways the first transnational corporation, starting life as a trading company in 1599 although, as author William Dalrymple notes, for some time the company struggled to get a foothold in India and the region.
That all changed in the mid-18th century. Over the 35 years to 1798 the EIC was effectively transformed from a trading company to an aggressive military combatant in the region, a privately owned imperial power with a standing army of 200,000 and territorial possessions far larger than that of its parent country.
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