he spice trade to the East Indies was a fixation of every English merchant, for nowhere in the world were fortunes to be made so readily. England started late, with a relatively small fleet of poorly equipped ships facing the might of the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. This splendidly written book details the struggle for dominance of the trade in cloves, nutmeg, and pepper, and gives character portraits of the often eccentric people who risked their lives on unknown seas and wild islands. It is not a perfect book and contains a few careless errors, such as giving Sir Francis Drake the command of the fight against the Armada. It is nevertheless both an enjoyable and enlightening read.

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