Between 1827 and 1841, Samuel Sneade Brown (1809–1875), a colonial administrator, was stationed in India. Published in 1878, this is a selection of the letters he sent home to his family during that period. Brown describes his correspondence as 'a journal of my heart, rather than a diary of my actions', and his letters are both poetic and humorous, telling a personal history of the British Empire. Brown reveals the high cost of colonial living, lamenting to his mother the fact that he could not afford to marry and support a family either in India or England. He communicates his strong bond of affection to his native country and to those he left behind. Making the connection between home and abroad, private and public, the domestic and the Empire, the letters present an insight into the economic changes and political challenges of the nineteenth century.