What strikes the author most is the uncertainty and flux of their lives as they and their circle improvised their way through the confusion of French, Spanish and British jurisdictions in the West Indies and America, and through the creeping, morphing status of the British in India.

ECONOMIST: Retracing the steps of one 18th-century Scottish family

The number could be cut down if existing groupings could be widened for instance if Malaya could federate with Sarawak and Borneo, British Guiana with the West Indies.

ECONOMIST: From the archive

Ten British colonies formed a pre-independence Federation of the West Indies in 1958.

ECONOMIST: The Caribbean: Small states, big money | The

In Part Two on Tuesday: How some British-Caribbean parents choose to send their children back to the West Indies for a more traditional education.

BBC: London teachers' Jamaican lessons