Stuart Laycock is a British historian and author best known for the popular-history book ''All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To''. He has also written extensively on

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and post-Roman

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

''All the Countries We've Ever Invaded''

''All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: And the Few We Never Got Round To'' (2012) attempts to catalogue every country Britain has ever invaded or made an incursion into, whether they were part of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

or suffered a briefer attack, were threatened, or forced to negotiate. Incursions by

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

s, private explorers, etc, are also listed.Copping, Jasper
"British have invaded nine out of ten countries - so look out Luxembourg"
Daily Telegraph (London), 04 Nov 2012 The book was attacked by Marxist writer

Richard Seymour Richard Vershaun Seymour (born October 6, 1979) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders. He played college football for ...

in the Guardian for allegedly trivialising the suffering caused by

imperialism Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...

.Seymour, Richard
"The British have invaded 90% of the world's countries. Ha ha?"
The Guardian (London), 6 November 2012 Although the book states it is not pro or anti-empire and is exploring historical facts rather than making moral judgements, Seymour accused it of "moral ambivalence." Seymour also criticised it for elements such as including invasions long before the existence of Britain as a nation, but praised it for showing how British power went far beyond the overt machinery of empire to include economic and other forces.

Other books

Laycock has also written books on late-Roman Britain: ''Britannia - The Failed State'' and ''Warlords: The Struggle for Power in Post-Roman Britain''. ''Warlords'' advances the theory that the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

invasion of England was a takeover by a warrior elite. With Miles Russell, he wrote ''UnRoman Britain'', which claims that Britain was not significantly influenced by Roman occupation. Laycock's first book of poetry, ''Zone:Poems from the Bosnian War'',
Mica Press 2015 drew on his experiences as an aid worker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laycock, Stuart British historians British writers British male writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)