Des Ekin is a retired journalist and the author of four books. Born in County Down, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a reporter. After spending several years covering the Ulster Troubles, he rose to become Deputy Editor of the Belfast Sunday News before moving to his current home in Dublin. He worked as a journalist, columnist, Assistant Editor and finally Political Correspondent for The Sunday World until 2012. His book The Stolen Village (2006) was shortlisted for the Argosy Irish Nonfiction Book of the Year and for Book of the Decade in the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards 2010. He is married with a son and two daughters.

Ekin is a fine journalist and stylist, who writes with a brio and enthusiasm that is infectious. The research is impeccable and the chapter-by-chapter bibliographies are exhaustive. This is a harrowing and rip-roaring read

• First … A Micro-History of the British EmpireAmritsar – The Massacre that Shocked the WorldBiological WarfareConcentration CampsDrug Dealing for Queen and CountryEugenics, Elitism and English Exceptionalism – A Glimpse Into the Mindset of EmpireFamine in IrelandThe G-Word: Genocide or Not?Hunting for Human BeingsIreland: The Test Lab of EmpireJamaica and the Saturnalia of SlaughterKleptomaniaLashman – The Extraordinary John Nicholson‘McEmpire’: – The East India CompanyThe New WorldOmdurman and the Slaughter of the WoundedPartition of India and the End of British RuleQueensland: The Dark History Behind the Sunshine StateRevolt in India, 1857 – The So-called ‘Indian Mutiny’Slavery‘Terror Beyond the Grave’ – The Peculiar Policy of Postmortem PunishmentThe ‘Unknown Continent’ and the Unbeatable WeaponVan Diemen’s Land‘The White Man’s Fury’ – The Waikato Atrocities in New ZealandThe Xhosa WarsYounghusband’s Yaks, and the Invasion of TibetZulusSource Notes