Roe saw himself as the representative of James I, a great monarch and powerful actor on the European stage, and his intransigence in dealing with the Mughals was a familiar posture by which European diplomats evoked and displayed the power of their sovereign (and so, likewise, the Mughals’ insistence on their customs procedures).

A major debut that explores the art, literature, sights and sounds of Jacobean London and Imperial India, Courting India reveals Thomas Roe's time in the Mughal Empire to be a turning point in history – and offers a rich and radical challenge to our understanding of Britain and its early empire.

All of this makes for a fascinating book - the wealth and power of the Mughals, their interest in novelty and luxury, and the failure at that time by the East India Company to provide Roe with the support he needed to secure favour with them. For Das the Roe mission is the lens through which to give sharp focus to a remarkably wide-ranging study that does much to illuminate the bigger story of the unpromising origins of British power - and initial powerlessness - in India . It also highlights the complex relationships and power structures at Jahangir’s court, and the open way he conducted much government business, as well as sharing court gossip and intrigue. Their understanding of South Asian trade and India was sketchy at best, and, to the Mughals, they were minor players on a very large stage.

It does seem however that Roe was greatly concerned with avoiding paying obeisance to the Mughal royals, and continuing to dress in hot English style clothing, neither of which made his job any easier. The power of good writing and a well-told story in getting people to understand each other should not be underestimated. This was chosen by Pratinav Anil, Lecturer at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and author of Another India: The Making of the World’s Largest Muslim Minority, 1947-77 (Hurst, 2023), as one of History Today’s Books of the Year 2023. From the point of this time it must have seemed highly unlikely that Britain would go on to any significant level of interest, never mind to rule, in India.Fascinating and comprehensive account of Thomas Roe’s embassy from the impoverished James I to the opulent Mughal Court of Jahangir. This lucid and imaginatively written book tells us a great deal about the hesitant early days of the first British Empire, as a traditionally inward-looking island nation sought to engage with the wider world. On behalf of the British Academy, it is my honour to congratulate Nandini Das on this exceptional work.