Imperial middlebrow The collection Imperial Middlebrow edited by Christoph Ehland and Jana Gohrisch takes middlebrow studies further in two ways. First it focuses on the role middlebrow writing played in the popularisation and dissemination of imperial ideology. It combines the interest in the wider function of literature for a colonial society with close scrutiny of the ideological and socio economic contexts of writers and readers. The essays cover the Girls Own Paper fiction about colonial India including its appearance in Scottish writing the West Indies the South Pacific as well as illustrations of Haggards South African imperial romances. Second the volume proposes using the concept of the middlebrow as an analytical tool to read recent Black and Asian British as well as Nigerian fiction