The middle decades of the twentieth century are widely recognised as a time of great social change, the repercussions of which we still feel today. Travels in a Bygone Age provides us with a new window into this era, a time in which the British Empire - which had covered around a quarter of the globe - was dissolving and the former colonies were gaining independence. From Rhodesia after its Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 to Bangkok during the Vietnam War, Henry Charlton was in a position to see remote and far-flung parts of the world when they still retained their exoticism and mystery, before the advent of low-cost air travel and mass tourism made such hitherto distant reaches of the globe seem just that little bit more familiar, even for those of us who are merely armchair travellers.