A triumph of writing and scholarship . . . 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 . . . Her style, while nuanced and erudite, is also jaunty and often witty. The book is as full of lovely passages of prose and finely shaded pen portraits as it is of new archival research, of which there is a great deal . . . It is hard to imagine anyone ever bettering Das's account of this part of the story

William Dalrymple, Financial Times

A fascinating glimpse of the origins of the British Empire . . . The picture that emerges of the first official encounter between Jacobean England and Mughal India is a vivid one, drawn in dazzling technicolour. Courting India is as much about Britain as India, a glimpse of one of history's turning points, and the start of a relationship that would change not just England but the world

Sam Dalrymple, Spectator

The story of the very earliest years of British activity on the Indian subcontinent, Das's book goes to the heart of the initial, heady meeting of courts and cultures and presents a novel look at the roots of colonialism

Books to Read in 2023, Financial Times

Skilfully reconstructs the slights and stand-offs, the escalating tensions . . . Courting India is a scholarly biography with an antiquary's eye for detail . . . Das's leisurely diversions into the world of Jacobean fashion, food and curiosities are fascinating

Pratinav Anil, The Times

An utterly absorbing narrative . . . What makes Das's account of Roe's experiences in India so fascinating is the depth of her research. She has mined the East India Company archives . . . as well as Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and, particularly, Mughal sources, to present Roe's four years in the round . . . Das has portrayed Roe and the unfamiliar world of the Mughal court in which he found himself with the piercing detail of a miniature painted with the finest squirrel-hair brush

Lucy Moore, Literary Review

Captivating . . . A truly impressive work of scholarship and an enthralling read . . . Makes a major contribution to our understanding not just of the origins of empire in India, but of the seventeenth-century world

Andrea Major, History Today