Nandini Das is a professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at Oxford University, specializing in Renaissance literature and cultural history, with emphasis on cross-cultural encounters between Europe and Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She is the author of two previous books published in England, the editor of several volumes of essays, and the project director of the “Travel, Transculturality, and Identity in Early Modern England” (TIDE) project, funded by the European Research Council. A BBC New Generation Thinker, she regularly presents television and radio programs in England.

"When Thomas Roe arrived in India in 1616 as James I's first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, the English barely had a toehold in the subcontinent. 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. Roe represented a kingdom that was beset by financial woes and deeply conflicted about its identity as a unified 'Great Britain' under the Stuart monarchy. Meanwhile, the court he entered in India was wealthy and cultured, its dominion widely considered to be one of the greatest and richest empires of the world. In this fascinating history of Roe's four years in India, Nandini Das offers an insider's view of Britain in the making, a country whose imperial seeds were just being sown. It is a story of palace intrigue, scandal, lotteries, and wagers that unfold as global trade begins to stretch from Russia to Virginia, from West Africa to the Spice Islands of Indonesia."--