Shashi Tharoor served for twenty-nine years at the United Nations, rising to the post of Under-Secretary-General. Tharoor, who has also been Minister of State for External Affairs in India, is presently a Congress MP. The author of sixteen previous books, he has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India was a Sunday Times bestseller and was named as a Financial Timesbook of the year.