'It is January 1900. A momentous century is over. The great Victorian era is fast approaching its end; the aged Queen has a mere twelve months to live. But the British Empire is still in its prime, still sending its soldiers, administrators and its governors out to rule in almost every part of the globe, still supremely self-confident and oblivious to the straws in the wind that give indication of changes that the new century will bring. The Old World and the New: The Marriage and Colonial Adventures of Lord and Lady Northcote tells the previously untold story of a colonial ruler and his wife against the backdrop of fin-de-siecle England; its ruling class in decline after a thousand years of power. As the old century gives way to the new, travel with Harry and Alice Northcote to Bombay, at a time of plague and famine, and arrive in Australia four years later during the critical years closely following federation. Relive the drama of the Northcotes' personal lives, involving an obsessive relationship, scandal, sudden death in 10 Downing Street, and the marrying of New World money with old world class. This book raises issues of population, immigration, social mobility and the ethics of the British Empire, relevant to contemporary debates.' (Publication summary)
