Music hall was the first mass medium of an industrial age that was dominated by empires. In every city that was part of an empire, there were Empire and imperial music halls, vaudevilles, opera houses, theatres or fledgling cinemas. This book explores the fates of these fallen Empires and Imperials, as well as the stories of the survivors.

A tribute to everyday people who witnessed the Second World War firsthand is a collection of personal accounts by soldiers and civilians complemented by 450 contemporary and rarely seen photographs and a seventy-minute audio CD.