“I have long been interested in both history and historical fiction.” – The Dorset Book Detective

Historical author Rajat Roy talks to me about his debut novel, The Traitor’s Bargain, his research process and his innovative route to publication.

Please tell me about your books. What drew you to historical novels?

The Traitor’s Bargain, my debut novel, is set in Bengal between 1756 and 1763, during a period of profound political upheaval. Beginning a year before the Battle of Plassey and continuing for several years after it, the novel traces the East India Company’s early transformation from a commercial enterprise into a political power. Against this changing historical landscape, it explores ambition, betrayal, divided loyalties and the human consequences of an established order giving way to a new one.

I have long been interested in both history and historical fiction. What draws me particularly to historical novels is their ability to transport the reader into another age – not merely to witness its major events, but to understand how people thought, what they believed, and how they were shaped by the society around them. Through fiction, we can enter the psychology of people from the past and experience their culture, social conventions, economic circumstances and moral assumptions in a way that conventional historical accounts do not always allow.

Among the historical novelists I particularly admire are Ken Follett and Amitav Ghosh, both of whom have shown how sweeping historical change can be brought to life through individual human stories.

I am currently working on my second novel, The Wounded Empire, which is set during the Indian Uprising of 1857 and continues my exploration of the turbulent history of British India.

Tell me about your career before you became a writer. How did you get published?

I am a business consultant based in Sydney, and that remains my day job – one that I genuinely enjoy. The work requires analytical thinking, careful research and the ability to understand complex situations from different perspectives. Interestingly, these are many of the same skills I have drawn upon in researching and writing historical fiction.

I write in my free time, driven by a longstanding passion for history and storytelling. Although consulting and novel-writing may appear very different, both involve gathering information, identifying patterns and shaping a large body of detail into a coherent narrative.

I published The Traitor’s Bargain independently through my own publishing imprint, Emberline Books. Establishing the imprint allowed me to retain creative control over the novel while taking responsibility for every aspect of its publication, from editing and design to production and distribution. It also meant that the publication timetable remained entirely in my own hands. I could publish the book when I believed it was truly ready – without either rushing to meet a publisher’s deadline or waiting for a place in a publisher’s release schedule. It was a demanding process, but also an extremely rewarding one, as it enabled me to bring the book to readers in the form and at the time I had envisioned.

What books do you like reading yourself? Any authors you’re particularly fond of?

My reading tastes are fairly wide-ranging, although history and historical fiction occupy a particularly important place. I enjoy novels that transport me convincingly into another period while showing how historical forces shape the lives and choices of individuals. Among historical novelists, I am especially fond of Ken Follett and Amitav Ghosh. Ken Follett’s Kingsbridge series combines rich storytelling with a remarkable evocation of medieval society, politics and everyday life.

I also read a great deal of nonfiction history, particularly works concerning India and the British Empire. William Dalrymple is a particular favourite; I admire the way books such as The Anarchy, The Last Mughal and White Mughals bring historical personalities and vanished societies vividly to life. I have also enjoyed works by Lawrence James, John Keay and David Gilmour.

Beyond history, I have always enjoyed mysteries, legal dramas and political or espionage thrillers. Agatha Christie, Frederick Forsyth, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer have all been longstanding favourites, while more recently I have read several novels by Joseph Finder.

I also continue to read in Bengali, whose literary tradition is one of the richest and most influential in South Asia. Satyajit Ray’s Feluda detective stories, Saradindu Bandopadhyay’s Byomkesh mysteries, Parashuram’s satirical short stories, and Sunil Gangopadhyay’s historical novels remain particular favourites. For something lighter, I can always return to P. G. Wodehouse.

How do you go about researching your books? What sources do you use to learn about the history of British India?

I usually begin with broad histories to establish the chronology, political context and principal figures of the period. I then move to more specialised works dealing with the particular events, institutions and personalities that appear in the novel. As the story develops, the research becomes increasingly specific: I may need to investigate anything from military organisation and systems of government to clothing, food, travel, architecture, social customs and the rhythms of everyday life.

William Dalrymple’s books have been particularly valuable to me. The Anarchy provides a vivid account of the East India Company’s transformation from a trading corporation into a territorial power, which is central to the world of The Traitor’s Bargain. White Mughals offers insight into the cultural encounters and personal relationships between Indians and Europeans, while The Last Mughal reconstructs Delhi and its society during the upheaval of 1857, the period I am exploring in my second novel.

I have also drawn on works such as Lawrence James’s Raj, John Keay’s The Honourable Company, Nick Robins’s The Corporation That Changed the World, David Gilmour’s The British in India and Tirthankar Roy’s History of the East India Company. I supplement these broader accounts with biographies, memoirs, contemporary records and other period material wherever possible.

Research gives me the historical foundations, but fiction requires another step: imagining how those larger forces might have been experienced by individual people, with their own loyalties, ambitions, fears and limitations.

If you could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, on a writing project, who would it be and why?

I would choose Amitav Ghosh. I greatly admire the way he explores the social, economic and political complexities of British India through vividly realised human characters. In the Ibis Trilogy, for example, the experiences of characters such as Neel Rattan Halder illuminate the wider forces of empire, commerce and displacement without reducing the novel to a historical account.

That approach has a strong affinity with what I have attempted in The Traitor’s Bargain. Through Javed Hussain and characters drawn from both Indian and British society, I wanted to show how the East India Company’s commercial ambitions and growing political power affected people across different classes and communities. Ghosh likewise presents empire from several perspectives while exposing the avarice and human consequences that accompanied the Company’s expansion.

A collaboration with him would therefore be fascinating: it would bring together a shared interest in British India, economic history and the intimate human experiences through which the larger movements of history become most meaningful.

From your research, if you could live in any time period, when would it be and why?

I have several destinations on my bucket list should a time machine ever be invented.

One would be Victorian London, brimming with purpose, vigour and an almost restless spirit of enquiry. For a few days, I might even tolerate the smog belched by the “dark Satanic mills”, the horse-dung-strewn streets and the grimy slums that existed alongside its magnificent buildings. I would walk through the crowded markets, and perhaps spend an evening in a bustling coffee house, listening to the conversations of a city convinced that it stood at the centre of the world.

Ancient Athens would also be irresistible. I would visit an agora, one of the city’s designated public places, and listen intensely to their famed philosophical discourses, before watching one of the great tragedies performed in an open-air theatre.

In imperial Rome, I would soak in the excitement at the Colosseum as an 80,000 strong crowd builds up before a gladiatorial contest begins. I would steal a glance at the emperor in the imperial box, surrounded by senators occupying the places of honour around him. Then the gladiators, bare-chested and helmeted, carrying shields and gleaming weapons, would emerge into the arena and ceremonially acknowledge the emperor before the contest began, at which point I would quietly slip away before the bloodshed started.

I would also be fascinated to spend a day at the court of one of the great Mughal emperors, experiencing the overpowering aura of extraordinary opulence, elaborate courtly etiquette and the power of life and death over a quarter of humanity.

Last, but certainly not least, I would return to my own Kolkata, the city in which I grew up, during the period when it was the capital of British India and was often described as the second city of the Empire after London. I would particularly like to see the European quarter around Chowringhee at its height: its grand buildings, carriages and fashionable promenades. With luck, I might even catch sight of the Viceroy taking the evening air on horseback across the Maidan, Kolkata’s answer to Hyde Park.

What books are you looking forward to reading in the future?

The next two books on my reading list are The Switch by Joseph Finder and The Secret of Secrets, Dan Brown’s latest novel. I’ve read all of Dan Brown’s previous novels and have enjoyed Joseph Finder’s thrillers of late, so I’m looking forward to both.

I also have another reading project that I’m genuinely excited about. Between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one, I read around forty-five Agatha Christie novels, and they gave me an enormous amount of pleasure. More than thirty years later, I’d like to revisit as many of them as possible, particularly the Hercule Poirot stories. I’m looking forward to rediscovering old favourites and reliving the enjoyment they brought me when I first read them.

What’s next for you? Any new projects you’re excited about?

I’m currently working on The Wounded Empire, a historical novel set during the Indian uprising of 1857, and it’s a project I’ve become deeply absorbed in.

The novel centres largely on Delhi, from the fading world of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s court to the rebellion, the siege and the eventual fall of the city. It is told through several intersecting perspectives: Indian sepoys, members of the Mughal court, British officers, and Indian civilians, whose lives are gradually overtaken by extraordinary events.

What fascinates me most is not only the scale of the uprising, but what it must have felt like to live through it. I wanted to move beyond battles and political decisions to explore the human experience of history: faith and conviction, courage and fear, love and loss, the destruction of a remarkable civilisation, and the resilience of ordinary people caught between forces far beyond their control. My hope is that readers will come away with a richer understanding of 1857, not simply as a military rebellion, but as a profoundly human story.

The Wounded Empire is expected to be published in the first few months of 2027.

Do you have anything to add?

Only that I remain deeply grateful to readers who continue to engage with my work. Historical fiction asks readers to enter a world very different from their own, but the emotions at its heart – ambition, fear, loyalty, love, betrayal and hope – remain recognisable across centuries.

For me, writing history through fiction is not simply about recreating the past. It is about recovering the human lives beneath the dates and political events, including the voices that official histories often leave at the margins. I hope my novels encourage readers not only to enjoy the story, but also to look again at the history behind it and perhaps see it with greater curiosity and empathy.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about my writing.

Thank you so much Rajat for taking the time to answer my questions. You can find out more about his debut book HERE.