Courting India is a beautifully written book that immerses you in Jacobean England and Mughal India before the British East India Company. This era is not normally written about, the information and stories in this book were new to me. Nandini Das immerses you in the story with wonderful descriptions of the times and makes London and India come alive. The book is full of information, but is not dry or boring. It is a vibrant and page turning account of a little-known era of history. I loved this book and will be rereading it because it was so interesting.

Fascinating account of the early encounters between Britain and Mughal Empire. Thomas Roe was James I first ambassador to India where he spent four years (1616-19) at the court of Jahangir. He went on to have a successful diplomatic career as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire but here he is quite the fish out of water, trying to establish relationships and obtain better trading arrangements without the proper means to do so. Unable to match the lavishness of the Persian embassy for example or to make much headway against the Portuguese, already by this time better established on the subcontinent, he is forever complaining about lack of funds. The gifts and bribes that periodically arrive on the East India Company ships often spoil on the long voyage or rot in the climate. His health suffers and his embassy is badly understaffed. From such beginnings, it makes you wander, how on earth did Britain end up having an empire at all?

Das has done a phenomenal amount of research and gives us a fantastic insight into the Mughal court, its culture, customs, society, politics and power relationships between major players. And while Roe kept a journal and wrote letters, I didn’t get the impression that he was particularly interested in any of this, unless it pertained to him obtaining privileges for British traders. I personally found him quite dull especially compared to Jahangir and his family. Still, a fascinating read.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Courting India.

Courting India is an interesting account of the British arrival in India in the early 1600's from the perspective of Thomas Roe, James I’s first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, who arrived there in 1616.It explored the beginning of Britain's imperial and colonial as well as the goings on and culture of Elizabethan England.