Looking back: from the archives of the British Library
Round the Bend is a series of tales from the days when Britain ruled India and the Gulf, told with documents newly digitised by the British Library.
The hardship posting to end all hardship postings
It was the hardship posting to end all hardship postings. British officers went quite literally round the bend to get there, writes Matthew Teller, and perhaps sometimes metaphorically too.
When British diplomats ran the Gulf
The India Office exercised colonial rule over an area stretching west as far as Aden. Stories are being brought to light in a £8.7m project for nearly half a million documents relating to the Gulf to be digitised.
The diplomat who said “No” to Saudi oil
In 1932, amid a global economic slump, the impoverished Saudis came to London looking for a loan. They also had an offer: would Britain like to try drilling for oil?
How Arabia made its money before the oil rush
To think of Arabia today is to think of unimaginable oil wealth. Less than a century ago, one of its main sources of income was pearl fishing - which was under threat from competition and colonial administrators,
