As 2020 is coming to an end, you can either read a dozen Quilette articles or letters in The Times - or even throw in a PragerU video for good measure - insisting the British Empire was 'Overwhelmingly a force for good' and that 'wokery' is erasing history...

Or you can avail yourself of the critical and deeply researched work of actual scholars. Here are my recommendations for Christmas gifts this year - for anyone seriously interested in the history of the British Empire and its legacies:

@PriyaSatia 'Time's Monster'

- @profdanhicks 'The Brutish Museum'

- @PriyamvadaGopal 'Insurgent Empire'

- @DalrympleWill 'The Anarchy'

-Stuart Ward and @astrid_rasch 'Embers of Empire in Brexit Britain'

- @RobertGildea 'Empires of the Mind'

- @aaprocter

And some forthcoming ones:

@Sathnam 'Empireland'

and of course @pdkmitchell 'Imperial Nostalgia'

Apologies if I have forgotten any others - there is obviously a vast literature out there, so these are just some initial recommendations and a good starting-point if you are interested - genuinely interested - in the British Empire...

So I did forget a few:

@mbarcia24 'The Yellow Demon of Fever'

- @lottelydia 'The Free Speech Wars'

And, as some people have kindly pointed out, I should perhaps include some of my own books, if nothing else than to please my publishers...

Honourable mentions:

@jonewilson 'India Conquered'

And I'm going beyond the Anglo-centric focus of the list to include this brilliant historical comic which cannot be recommended enough:

@MichaelGVann 'The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt'

And taking us into global comparative imperialism:

@olaferr