This is a remarkable book. It combines a spellbinding account of the first forgotten half of the English encounter with India with a fascinating history of the Mughal Empire

Illuminating and engrossing

A compelling, highly readable account of the earliest phase of English presence in India – Al-Azami deftly combines familiar stories with significantly less familiar figures to vividly bring to life a period of immense change for both nations involved

Remarkable . . . Al-Azami writes with a playful urbanity and excels at the interplay of geopolitics and personal ambition . . . a welcome corrective to our parochial understanding of Tudor and Stuart England

Disrupts the conventional narrative to give a vital pre-history to the Raj, when the indomitable empire in question was Indian not British

Brings the Mughal world of the seventeenth century to life in all its colourful, vivid complexity. Al-Azami betrays a masterful eye for detail, telling the story of how the English tried to navigate the dazzling wealth, power, and cultural dynamism of the Indian subcontinent, though rarely with success. This book is a must read.

In this compelling and entertaining book, Lubaaba Al-Azami surveys the first century of British travel to India and its remarkable stories of encounter and error, ambition and anxiety. The book has much to teach about the sources and the aftermath of both British and Indian histories ever since

A fascinating and timely account of the earliest Anglo-Indian encounters, Al-Azami deftly recreates a crucial period in early British imperial history

A detailed, nuanced and yet utterly engrossing exploration . . . Eloquent prose binds together a treasure trove of fascinating facts with the capacity to see Britain and the world in an entirely different, richer way. Unputdownable!

Fascinating . . . Lubaaba Al -Azami’s closely researched portrayal of these pioneers describes formative early encounters between East and West, and sets the scene for the age of colonialism and globalisation that would follow

This lively book digs away at the outdated idea that the British ascendancy there was somehow predestined or foreseeable