In Conversation with Nandini Das

Join us for this special celebration event in which Nandini Das, winner of the British Academy Book Prize 2023, will be discussing 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 groundbreaking 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 BBC4.

Event chair: Charles Tripp FBA, Professor of Politics at SOAS and chair of the British Academy Book Prize panel of judges.

This event is free, but booking is required. Doors will open at 17:30 for registration.

This event will take place both in-person at the British Academy's home at 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, St James, London, SW1Y 5AH and will be live-streamed virtually via Vimeo.

*The in-person event will be recorded and there will be photography.

If you have any questions about this event please contact [email protected] or call the Events Team on +44(0)20 7969 5264.

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Awarded annually since 2013, the British Academy’s £25,000 non-fiction book prize recognises work that searches for truth and reason in difficult places, and shines a light on the connections and divisions that shape cultural identity worldwide.

To mark the opening of submissions for 2024 British Academy Book Prize (15 January to 29 February), this event will be followed by a drinks reception at the British Academy with the opportunity to discuss a prospective submission with the Book Prize Team and judges.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, United Kingdom