Simon Schama's pick of the government's art collection

Historian Simon Schama has selected a number of works from the government's art collection for a new exhibition which explores the British desire to travel and create a distinctly British view in depictions of people and places overseas.

The exhibition, Travelling Light, opens at the Whitechapel Gallery in London on Friday, 16 December, and features works which appear in British embassies and government buildings around the world but are not normally seen by the public.

Simon Schama explained why he had chosen some of the paintings and sculptures and what they said about the British relationship with home and abroad.