Nathaniel's Nutmeg - Giles Milton

Not raring to get my teeth into this one to be honest - it's a bit too similar to his Samurai William book - late Elizabethan/early Jacobean period, male mariners-explorers-merchants, establishing trade with the East... Not difficult to read, just a bit too dry / familiar in terms of subject matter, especially after Allison Pearson!

Basically it's the history of the spice trade, the East India Company and mapping of modern day South East Asia, in particular Indonesia and the Phillipines, and draws upon diaries and documents of the time.

I've started to I'll finish. I just hope Battersea Library re-opens soon so that I can get some more varied books out on loan....

...21 July.... FInished it on the train back from Bristol!
Another of Giles Milton's history tales, but again with a slightly misleading title. This narrative contains only one chapter on Nathaniel Courthope, and what little there is reads awkwardly, the facts not living up to the hype of the book's title and Giles Milton's interpretation. With analysis and fact coming from much of the same material as was used in Samurai William, the resulting parallels in the defects of both books shouldn't surprise. However they do disappoint; and I can't see myself buying or borrowing Big Chief Elizabeth.

Buy it: Amazon link