British decline in the 20th Century is often seen as something fixed and inevitable. As the United Kingdom’s financial strength ebbed, so did its power, prestige and influence in the world. Yet Britain was never a state in terminal decay. In relative decline, perhaps, but always a vital entity, one that embraced a process of re–invention; that proved ready to change and adapt its methods, its institutions and its structures. But what if that re-invention had been driven by a pragmatic realism that put the economic health of the British state at the heart of policy? Drake’s Drum: The Peace of Amiens is the compulsively readable first part of a three book series that recount an immersive, thoroughly researched alternate timeline where British politics, Britain’s wars and the history of the world in the 20th Century turn out very differently.