In conversation with Nandini Das, winner of the British Academy Book Prize 2023

Nandini Das, winner of the British Academy Book Prize 2023, discusses her experience of writing her prize-winning book 'Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire' (Bloomsbury, 2023).

'Courting India' offers a fascinating history of Thomas Roe, the first British ambassador to the Mughal Empire, and his four years in India. This ground-breaking book provides an insider's view of Britain in the making, a country whose imperial seeds were just beginning to be sown. It is a story of palace intrigue and scandal, unfolding across the world stage as global trade stretched from Russia to Virginia, and from West Africa to the Spice Islands of Indonesia.

Nandini Das is Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture in the English faculty at the University of Oxford. Brought up in India, she was educated at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, before moving to England for further study. Among other books, she is co-editor of 'The Cambridge History of Travel Writing'. A BBC New Generation Thinker, she regularly presents television and radio programmes, including 'Tales of Tudor Travel: The Explorer's Handbook' on BBC Four.

Find out more about the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/b...

Subtitles, also known as closed captions, are available on our YouTube videos. You can access them by clicking on the 'CC' button or gear icon on the video. The 'CC' button and gear icon are usually located at the bottom of videos.

Find out more about the British Academy: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/

For future events, visit our website: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/e...

Subscribe to our email newsletter: https://email.thebritishacademy.ac.uk...