Alex Rutherford

A new empire is rising It is 1744, and Nicholas Ballantyne, a young Scotsman dreaming of a life as laird of his ancestral estate finds himself quite unexpectedly on the Winchester, a ship bound for Hindustan, seeking to begin a new life as a ?writer? on the rolls of the British East India Company. On board, he meets the spirited and mercurial Robert Clive, determined - at whatever cost - to make a fortune in a land of opportunity. Over the years,...

This is the story of the third great Moghul Emperor, Akbar, leader of a triumphant dynasty which contained the seeds of its own destruction. Akbar, ruler of a sixth of the world's people, colossally rich and utterly ruthless, was a contemporary of Elizabeth I, but infinitely more powerful.