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Books to Read
On my tours many people ask for recommendations about books to read. Here are some I’ve read which have helped me to put together my tours.
In fact i’ve met some of the authors and they have been very generous with their time.
The Anarchy, William Dalrymple’s authoritative view of the East India Company is the first book I read. A lot of it was from research in the Delhi archives. I like the idea of that. Apparently there’s a film on its way.
Nandini Das’s book, Courting India, is about the first Ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, to Emperor Jahangir’s court. I sometimes cover Thomas in my tours. Always ill, he had to drink a lot of red wine with the Emperor.
My goodness, Jane Pettigrew’s World of Tea is the only book you really need to buy. It tells you about every country in which tea is grown and its history. Jane is the Director of Studies at the UK Tea Academy.
Nick Robins’ book actually taught me a lot about why multinationals are the way they are today. The East India Company was the first joint stock company and set the blue print for the future. Nick is an economist working in the City but I wasn’t bamboozled by the language. It’s easy to read.
Joe Hollins, the vet on St Helena tells us what it was like to look after the oldest land animal in the world - Jonathan, a tortoise aged 192 years.