A literary journey in the 18th century, from India to Great-Britain. This profuse novel is about art and love, culture and history. It made me travel and open my eyes in wonder.

A really interesting historical read as you follow Abbas, a wood carver and a toy maker on his journey.
It begins in Mysore, India in the late 1700s in his childhood, with plenty of twists and turns along the way.

A sort of fairy tale telling of the story of an automata on display in the V and A. It's slow and quit spell binding and there is a refreshing innocence.

Not my usual historical fiction read but "Loot" by Tania James does breathe life into artefacts that you see in cabinets at museums like the British Museum or in this case, the V&A. I hadn't realised that 'Tippoo's Tiger' is actually on display at the V&A and I shall definitely visit it the next time I am there. In terms of the story itself, it was slow to get going but I enjoyed Abbas's relationship with his mentor and then later on his mentor's daughter. An interesting read.

This historical novel is captivating! It an imagination of the creation of Tipu's Tiger , an 18th-century mechanical toy created for Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in India.
The story follows Abbas, a Mysorean woodcarver, who together with Monsieur Du Leze, a skilled French clockmaker create the Tiger for the Sultan which is later taken by British soldiers when they raid Mysore. Abbas escapes to France, where with Du Leze’s daughter, Jehanne, they plot to recover the Tiger , which is in the hands of Lady Selwyn, the widow of a British soldier who served in India.
I enjoyed every page of this heartwarming book, it was a fabulous read!!!!

This book wasn't as I expected. It was slow and not much happened. The author did a good job weaving a story around an artefact in the V&A but it was repetitive and missing the special something for me to give it any more than 3 stars.

This is an incredible story and an amazing journey for the reader. It’s very different to my usual genre, but it’s so beautifully written that I was immediately transported into a totally different and almost mystical and magical world. It’s a journey for the central character, a young uneducated Indian boy who’s learning his trade as a wood carver. But things change and he’s whisked away from his homeland and the tale then centres on clockmaking and automata. It’s a story of innocence and enlightenment. It’s part fairytale but with a large touch of reality. I loved it and found myself totally immersed from the start.

An enthralling story based on an object in the V&A museum in London. The book starts in Mysore, India, where young Abbas and Lucien du Leze craft an intricate musical wooden tiger for Tipu Sultan. Then the British arrive. By the end of the book, the tiger is in a grand English house, one of many items in a collection of curiosities. In between, there are many adventures for Abbas and de Leze. Beautifully written. A compulsive read.

A refreshing change to find an old-style adventure story published nowadays with a brilliant writer casting our minds back to days past.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, no flashing backwards and forwards, with relationships that were romantic not explicitly sexual. A tale full of adventure and tension.
The characters were interesting but believable.
I loved this book.
Thanks to the author for an enjoyable read and to the publisher for an advance copy for honest review.

Abbas is a young wood carver living with his family when Sultan Tipu suddenly want to see him in the palace. The story follows Abbas’ life of wood carving the musical tiger to his voyage to Grance to find his friend and mentor. Quite a slow book where not much happens.

This is a super book which hooked me from page 1. It is well crafted and clever and the characters are believable and engaging. I was taken aback that it ended so abruptly though and would have liked to go on reading ……

This is an enjoyable read and a book that it is easy to see as Richard and Judy choice. A very topical and clever use of the sense of identity and what it is like being an outsider, a Frenchman in India, an Indian living in France, an Indian living in London and women in the 18th century.

On top of that there are two overstory's (young and old) - I particularly loved Lady Selwyn's love affair and her novel.

What I've said may it sound rather worthy. It isn't the author rattles things along at a cracking pace. There is good characterisation and constantly changing vignettes of different aspects of 18th century life.

We even have a section on the privations of life at sea and its dangers.

Sometimes, as a reader, I felt rather hurried along. Personally I think the novel could have been longer and readers today certainly seem to have the appetite for longer well written books.

Thank you to and NetGalley for the chance to read this.

Absolutely gorgeous book spanning continents and time. I loved this one. We follow Abbas from being an uneducated but very talented teenage wood carver in 18th century Mysore after he is called to work on a project in the Sultan’s court, to France where he wishes to apprentice to the clock maker he worked under in Mysore before the fall the sultan to British forces. Of course things do not go to plan, and that is what makes this story so beautiful and engaging - the way Abbas and the other characters find their way despite the odds. Highly recommend this wonderful book!

I love the idea of creating one type of art inspired by another, in this case a novel which starts out in the court of Tipu Sultan for whom the Tipu’s Tiger automaton (now in the V&A) was made. Considering Tipu’s palace was razed to the ground some years after the events related here, if some spoils hadn’t been taken when they were, we might never have seen it.
With little concrete information available about who made the tiger, Tania James has imagined a collaboration between a French clockmaker and a Mysorean woodcarver. Lucien du Leze has left revolutionary France while toymaker Abbas has not previously even left his village. Together, master and apprentice create something wonderful before chaos descends on the Summer Palace.
I thought the whole story might be set there, but after said chaos, they each leave Mysore and we follow them. I wasn’t expecting a love story. And perhaps neither were the characters concerned; I really like the way James relates what they notice about the other, how they feel.
I’d recommend Loot if you like a story with interesting characters, a sense of humour and that doesn’t tread an obvious path; even four-fifths of the way through I had no idea where it might end. And I’d happily read a whole book about Aggie, Lady Selwyn. She’s my new late-life role model.

This was a fascinating and engrossing read that transported me to exotic climes, the high seas, France and England. The author has created a possible creation story for a real automaton made by unknown craftsmen in the 18th century and woven a bit of Downton Abbey in too! I thoroughly enjoyed the story and especially the way the author described different sections of the book from the eyes of different characters, giving you differing viewpoints. A very enjoyable and satisfying read.

I'm afraid this book just wasn't for me, however I am sure that it will hit the spot for many other readers. The writing style just didn't quite hit the mark for me unfortunately.

I have been to Mysore and Srirangapatnam a couple of times and have read quite a lot about Tipu Sultan and the history of his many and varied conflicts. Hence, the moment I heard that the protagonist of this story was a toy maker, I knew exactly where the story was going to go.

BUT, I was wrong. There was so much more to this book than 'poor young boy makes political automaton'. Lots more. I would even dare to say that the story only really gets going once it leaves India and Abbas and Jehanne go in search of the Tiger and attempt to get it back.

Did I believe the story? Not so much. Too many things seemed to slot neatly together to have any great sense of realism, but I enjoyed it none the less. It was certainly a lot more readable than some of the more academic books I have on Tipu.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for my copy.

I loved this book from the first page to the last, and really didn't want it to end. The characters are well developed and three dimensional, and there are some wonderfully memorable people here. We watch their lives from afar, like watching a film which moves through different scenes building a story gradually rather than delving into characters' minds.

The story spans the life of Abbas from teenager to middle aged (I'm not sure exactly how long, but that's how it seemed to me), as he finds his way in the world. He encounters cruelty, racism, entitlement, greed and ignorance. But also kindness, compassion, love and connections. I often don't like stories with sudden and unexplained changes in points of view, but the diary written by the sailor at sea was one of my favourite parts of the book.

I said that reading this book was like watching a film. But I also think it would be a beautiful book to read aloud, or to listen to as it soars, swoops and sings its story. I would certainly buy it in audio book form.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy for review.

I read an eARC of this so thank you to Net Galley, the author and the publisher.

This was a fascinating historical novel. It covers the life of Abbas and takes place over multiple points in his life. We meet him when he’s a teenager and is taken on as an apprentice by a clockmaker called Monsier Du Leze. Du Leze has been commissioned by Tipu Sultan to create an automaton of a tiger attacking a British soldier. Du Leze is very impressed by Abbas and when he returns to France he wishes him to come with him to continue to train as his apprentice.

I thought this was very well-written. It was exciting, moved along at pace. The passion Du Leze and Abbas have for their crafts is so strong and helps us understand the choices they make. The descriptions of their creations were so impressive. Abbas is a very hard worker and is grateful for his mentor.

This isn’t a particularly long novel but I felt the characters were very believable and well constructed. The author managed to convey their desires, their flaws and their anxieties in very few words. Not just Du Leze and Abbas, but other characters who become important later on in the book too.

I really enjoyed this, I would recommend it and I would read it again.

This is a clever book. It is built around an artifact that belonged to Tipu Sultan (1750-99), the Indian Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore and that is known as Tipu’s Tiger - an automaton depicting a tiger attacking a European soldier, probably belonging to the East India Company. It is one of the artifacts that was obtained after the fourth Anglo-Mysore war when the victorious army plundered Tipu’s palace – hence the title Loot.

The main focus of the book however is not the Tiger itself but its imagined creators Abbas (a native of Mysore) and Muza de Leze (a French watchmaker and inventor appointed to the palace). It is the background story of the Tiger’s creation and journey - eventually ending in London’s V&A – that make this book a fascinating read. The way the story of the tiger is intrinsically linked to that of its creators provide the reader with rich and colourful insights into colonial history with all its underlying beliefs of superiority and cultural domination carried by the colonisers.

It is also Abba’s heart-warming story in which he follows his dreams and ambitions, taking him and the reader from southern India across the oceans to France and then to England and back to France in his pursuit of happiness.

The fabric of the story is so rich, with many different threads of narration that no short review could do it justice. It comes highly recommended.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.