Wasn't what I thought it would be, but I enjoyed it very much. The book is not as much about Nathaniel Courthope as it is about the Anglo-Dutch spice wars in modern-day Indonesia. It's a sprawling set of situations, characters, and stories, and makes for gripping reading. What it does not do is come together as a memorable whole, though I don't think the author was quite aiming for that either. Learnt a lot, but kept thinking this could have been better structured.

to King Henry VIII with the exciting (and highly secret) news that the Spice Islands could be reached by way of the North Pole: `I know it is my bounden duty to manifest this secret unto your Grace,' he wrote, `which scarcely have failed to work on his lordship, for he knew to his cost that a spoonful of nutmeg before bedtime could cause no end of sweet but troublesome dreams: He lives in London, where he is a member of the Hakluyt Society, which is dedicated to reprinting the works of explorers and adventurers in scholarly editions, some of which he uses in his research. He wrote most of Samurai William in the London Library, where he loves the "huge reading room, large Victorian desks and creaking armchairs". At home and while traveling, he is ever on the lookout for new untold stories. Apparently he began researching the life of Sir John Mandeville for his book The Riddle and the Knight after Mandeville’s book Travels "literally fell off the shelf of a Paris bookstore" in which he was browsing. no knowledge of navigation. Such a man would have been a risk for the short hop across the English Channel; to despatch him to the uttermost ends of the earth was to court disaster. Despite numerous letters from the Company's directors allowing Courthope to leave his post, and even awarding him repeatedly for his efforts, he never gave in. Even after the fleet of Sir Thomas Dale sent from England to Run had been defeated by the Dutch governor of the archipelago, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the decision never changed.

More than five years was to pass before a search ship from England finally discovered what had happened to the Dropping anchor in the White Sea close to present-day Archangel, he abandoned ship and trudged his way overland to Moscow. At first he was disappointed in what he found. The city, he thought, was `very rude' and the Sidney's rhetoric won the day and Chancellor was promptly given command of the Edward Bonaventure, the largest of the expedition's three ships. The governors then turned to choosing a captain While London's merchants anxiously awaited news of their historic first voyage to the Spice Islands, many people in the country were left wondering what all the fuss was about. Nutmeg, after all, made for an unpromising luxury. Dry, wrinkled and

Nathaniel's Nutmeg tells the story of the Anglo-Dutch battle for the spice islands in Indonesia - a conflict that raged on and off for centuries. The particular focus is on the Banda archipelago, which was famous for being the world's only source of nutmeg and mace (at least until the Victorians learnt how to cultivate it elsewhere).Read about William Hawkins's dealings with the psychotic and unpredictable Moghul Emperor Jehangir (endless piss-ups, gladiatorial competitions between people and lions); Captain William Keeling making his crew put on Hamlet (in Africa, in 1607, possibly the first amateur production); and the Massacre of Amboyna, where the Dutch tortured and then murdered the English inhabitants on trumped-up charges.

The English departed without a struggle shortly after Courthope's death and their local allies - who considered themselves to be under His Majesty's reign - were being oppressed. [6]Nathaniel’s Nutmeg is about the battle for trade supremacy in the East Indies between the Dutch and English in the late 16th, early 17th century. The book focuses on the Banda Islands—a series of tiny islands in current day Maluku, which itself is an adaptation of the Portuguese word Moluccas meaning “spiceries”. This is essentially what the islands were for European merchants: spice plantations. With waves of the plague hitting Europe and the belief that nutmeg and mace were cure-alls, a pinch of nutmeg was worth a staggering amount. The Banda Islands were some of the only islands in the world where these spices grew and so these tiny, tough to access islands became a battleground for two of the world’s naval powers.