Nandini Das: A New View of Stuart England (1636)

In this episode prize-winning author Nandini Das takes us back to 1630s England to see a country still grappling with the legacies of the Reformation. Elsewhere we see the beginnings of Enlightenment and watch as questions about citizenship and belonging are raised in new and intriguing ways.

The Stuart Age, like the Tudor one that preceded it, is among England's most cherished. In her new book, This Little World, Nandini Das examines the history of this time not from the central but from the illuminating perspective of the ‘merchants, migrants, sailors, travellers and spies’ who, drawn together, helped forge a nation.

Find out more about Nandini Das's This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England.

Show Notes

Scene One: Elizabeth Cary kidnaps her youngest children from London and smuggles them off to continental Europe to be brought up as Catholics. 

Scene Two: In Virginia, Thomas Key leaves for England, leaving behind the mixed race daughter borne by an African enslaved woman.

Scene Three: In Oxford, John Tradescant the Elder is given the contract for the new Botanical Garden.

Memento: The Iliad of the Casket.

People/Social

Presenter: Peter Moore 

Guest: Nandini Das

Producer: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka

Partner: ACE Cultural Tours.