Professor David Olusoga

A talk by the historian and broadcaster Professor David Olusoga on the global history of tea in Britain, followed by a question and answer session and a book signing at St George's Bristol.

In this new talk for 2026, Professor David Olusoga, a BAFTA-winning producer, author and presenter, examines the history of Britain's national drink. Drawing on art, photography, history and humour, the talk follows tea's links with China, India, the Caribbean and the United States, from the Boston Tea Party and the Opium Wars to the British East India Company. It also covers industrial espionage, a little-known migration within India and the domestic traditions that grew up around tea in Britain. The talk adds this subject to his earlier Missing History talks.

The session includes a question and answer segment and a book signing. Olusoga is the author or co-author of eight books, among them Black & British: A Forgotten History, The World's War, Black & British: A Short Essential History, and The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism. On television he has worked on Union, Empire and A House Through Time, the long-running BBC history series he writes and presents, and he reached the final of the BBC series Celebrity Traitors.

The talk suits anyone interested in British, imperial and global history, and viewers who know his BBC programmes. It takes place at St George's Bristol.