Drax of Drax Hall – author talk by Paul Lashmar

How One British Family Got Rich (and Stayed Rich) from Sugar and Slavery. The story of the British Empire and slavery told through one family of the landed gentry, Drax of Drax Hall is a searing exposé of how a single British family built – and preserved – its fortune through centuries of slavery, land ownership, and imperial exploitation. Drax of Drax Hall is not just a look into the dark sources of one family’s fortune; it is an indictment of a nation’s refusal to reckon with its past.

Lashmar’s book is a necessary, damning reminder that the ghosts of Empire are not distant – they are living, breathing and, in some cases, still collecting rent.’ – The Observer Investigative journalist Paul Lashmar’s research for the Channel 4 series Britain’s Slave Trade, back in 2000, first piqued his interest in enslavement. His ongoing research over the last five years has focused on and led to the publication of ‘Drax of Drax Hall: How One British Family Got Rich (and Stayed Rich) from Sugar and Slavery’. This tells the full, unflinching story of the Drax dynasty that pioneered the British sugar industry and created the blueprint for slave-based plantation economies.

From the violent origins of British colonialism in the Caribbean to the quiet entrenchment of inherited privilege in the English countryside, this lays bare the enduring legacies of empire.

The award-winning investigative journalist and historian, Dr Paul Lashmar is the author of six books. A long-time resident of West Dorset, Lashmar began investigating the Drax family following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. The hardback was published in 2025, with paperback and audiobooks in 2026.

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