The ruling caste : imperial lives in the Victorian Raj

David Gilmour describes for the first time the complete, vast and vivid panorama of the Queen Empress's Raj.

At its peak an empire of 300 million people, spread over what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka, it was administered by some 130,000 Britons, including women and children.

Here you can see how it was done, and how life was lived by the extraordinary cast of characters.

Victorian India was no longer the raffish, corrupt, hard-drinking traders' empire of the eighteenth century.

To serve now took dedication, stamina and discipline.

The heroes of the India Civil Service were the young, celibate, isolated district officers.

Also on their mettle were the political agents at the maharaja's courts, ambassadors, schoolmasters and counsellors combined.

At the top were the viceroys, sometimes amateur and reluctant.

Outside the administration lay another society: the box wallahs and other businessmen, the tea planters and indigo planters.

Then there was a whole spectrum of missionaries, and also the army. David Gilmour describes in detail the physical realities of existence - the illnesses and causes of death, the procurement of food and drink, the obsession with rough sport, life in camp and in the Club, servants, pets and sartorial fashion.

The whole panorama of British India is here.