I began the research for this book while I was a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. I would like to thank the Master and Fellows for providing me with an environment conducive to research and writing, and for the warm welcome which I receive whenever I return.
I also spent a few months as a visiting fellow at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra. I am grateful to my colleagues there (especially Barry Higman and Tim Rowse) for making my stay such a pleasurable and productive one.
Many people (too numerous to mention by name) have taken the time to speak to me about Indian food or their lives in India; Natasha Eaton, Martin Jones, Peter Garnsey, Riho Isaka, Partha Mitter, Rana Mitter, Vijay Naidu, Ryoko Nakano, Kathy Prior, Michael Shapiro, Jo Sharma and Emma Spary provided me with useful references and information and Mike O’Brien read the manuscript with great patience and scrupulous care. I am extremely grateful to them all.
I would like to thank the staff of the Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge; the Oriental and India Office at the British Library; Cambridge University Library; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the Mass Observation Archive, Sussex University Library and the Imperial War Museum, London.
I would also like to thank John Cornwell and my agent Clare Alexander who both encouraged me to write this book; Penelope Hoare, my editor; my sister, Sarah, for her enthusiastic enjoyment of my curries; the Gnanasundaram and Sivasubramanian families for introducing me to delicious Indian home cooking and Namita Panjabi for a helpful conversation and a delectable lunch at Veeraswamy’s.
My absurdly itinerant lifestyle while researching and writing this book has put me in the debt of a great many generous friends: Fiona, Andrew, Alistair and Sarah Blake, Claire and Keith Brewster, Jan, Frank and Jack Collins, Vic and Pam Gatrell, Sophie Gilmartin, Geoff and Joan Harcourt, Francine and Jacky Imbert, Mike and Tricia O’Brien, Megan and Jeff Thompson, Jeremy Riley, Lionel and Deidre Ward and my late mum, Mary.
Rebecca Earle collected titbits of information for me and provided constructive criticism each of the many times she read the manuscript; she, David, Gabriel and Isaac Mond, have provided me with a home whenever I needed one. I cannot thank them enough. Thomas Seidel, as usual, instigated many adventures in the name of research and kept my spirits up while writing.