William Dalrymple Popular Books

William Dalrymple Biography & Facts

William Benedict Hamilton-Dalrymple (born 20 March 1965) is a India-based Scottish historian and art historian, as well as a curator, photographer, broadcaster and critic. He is also one of the co-founders and co-directors of the world's largest writers' festival, the annual Jaipur Literature Festival.His books have won numerous awards and prizes, including the Wolfson Prize for History, the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, the Hemingway, the Kapuściński, the Arthur Ross Medal of the US Council on Foreign Relations, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. He has been five times longlisted and once shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction and was a Finalist for the Cundill Prize for History. The BBC television documentary on his pilgrimage to the source of the river Ganges, "Shiva's Matted Locks", one of three episodes of his Indian Journeys series, which Dalrymple wrote and presented, won him the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002.In 2018, he was awarded the President's Medal of the British Academy, the Academy’s highest honour in its suite of prizes and medals awarded for "outstanding service to the cause of the humanities and social sciences."Dalrymple was the curator of Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi 1707–1857, a major show of the late Mughal painting for the Asia Society in New York, which ran from February to May 2012. A catalogue of this exhibit co-edited by Dalrymple with Yuthika Sharma was published by Penguin in 2012 under the same name. More recently he curated the exhibition of Company style painting, Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, at the Wallace Collection in London.In 2012, Dalrymple was appointed a Whitney J. Oates Visiting Fellow in the Humanities by Princeton University. In 2015, he was appointed the OP Jindal Distinguished Lecturer at Brown University. He is also since 2021 an Honorary Fellow of the Bodleian Library and a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University He was named in the 2020 Prospect list of the top 50 thinkers for the COVID-19 era.Dalrymple was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature and the arts. Personal life Dalrymple is the son of Sir Hew Hamilton-Dalrymple, 10th Baronet of North Berwick and Lady Anne-Louise Keppel, a daughter of Walter Keppel, 9th Earl of Albemarle; through this line of descent, he is the third cousin of Queen Camilla, both being great-great-grandchildren of William Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle. He is a great nephew of Virginia Woolf. His brother, Jock, was a first-class cricketer. He was educated at Ampleforth College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was first a history exhibitioner and then a senior history scholar.Dalrymple first went to Delhi on 26 January 1984, and has lived in India on and off since 1989 and spends most of the year at his Mehrauli farmhouse in the outskirts of Delhi, but summers in London and Edinburgh. His wife, Olivia, is an artist and comes from a family with long-standing connections to India. The couple have three children. His wife is related to Scottish actress Rose Leslie.One of his sons, Sam Dalrymple, is a historian and a cofounder of a peace initiative called Project Dastaan.The English journalist and author Alice Albinia is his cousin. Interests and influence Dalrymple's interests include the history and art of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Jains and early Eastern Christianity. Every one of his ten books has won literary prizes. His first three were travel books based on his journeys in the Middle East, India and Central Asia. His early influences included travel writers such as Robert Byron, Eric Newby, and Bruce Chatwin. Dalrymple published a book of essays about current affairs in the Indian subcontinent, and four award-winning histories of the interaction between the East India Company and the peoples of India and Afghanistan between the eighteenth and mid-nineteenth century, his "Company Quartet". His books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, the New Statesman and The New Yorker. He has also written many articles for Time magazine. He was the Indian Subcontinent correspondent of the New Statesman from 2004-2014. He attended the inaugural Palestine Festival of Literature in 2008, giving readings and taking workshops in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem.His 2009 book, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, a study of some of the more esoteric forms of modern Indian, and especially Hindu, spirituality, was published by Bloomsbury, and like all his others, went to the number one slot on the Indian non-fiction best-seller list. After its publication he toured the UK, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, Holland and the US with a band consisting of some of the people featured in his book including Sufis, Fakirs, Bauls, Tevaram hymn singers as well as a prison warder and part-time Theyyam dancer widely believed to incarnate the god Vishnu.Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, a history of the First Afghan War 1839–42, was published in India in December 2012, in the UK in February 2013, and in the US in April 2013. Dalrymple's great-great-granduncle Colin Mackenzie fought in the war and was briefly detained by the Afghans. Following the publication of the book Dalrymple was called to brief both the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the White House on the lessons to be learned from Afghan history.His most recent book, published in 2019, is The Anarchy, a history of the Indian Subcontinent during the period from 1739 to 1803, which saw the collapse of the Mughal imperial system, rise of the Maratha imperial confederacy, and the militarisation and rise to power of the East India Company. It was long listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2019, and short listed for the Duke of Wellington medal for Military History, the Tata Book of the Year (Non-fiction) and the Historical Writers Association Book Award 2020. It was a Finalist for the Cundill Prize for History and won the 2020 Arthur Ross Bronze Medal from the US Council on Foreign Relations.As of 2020, he was writing a book that is "a sweeping look at India’s ideological colonisation of Asia, China and Europe during the short period between 250 BC to about 800 AD." TV and radio Dalrymple has written and presented the six-part television series Stones of the Raj (Channel 4, August 1997), the three-part Indian Journeys (BBC, August 2002) and Sufi Soul (Channel 4, Nov 2005).The six-part Stones of the Raj documents the stories behind some of British India's colonial architecture starting with Lahore (16 August 1997), Calcutta (23 August 1997), The French Connection (30 August 1997), The Fatal Friendship (6 September 1997), Surrey in Tibet (13 September 1997).... Discover the William Dalrymple popular books. Find the top 100 most popular William Dalrymple books.

Best Seller William Dalrymple Books of 2024

  • Sound Bites synopsis, comments

    Sound Bites

    Alex Kapranos

    In September 2005, Alex Kapranos began writing about what he ate while touring the world with the rock band Franz Ferdinand. The writing is as much about where he eats and the peop...

  • Tales of Crimes Past synopsis, comments

    Tales of Crimes Past

    Sunil Nair

    An AngloIndian Couple Plotting Murder.A British Resident Nursing Conspiracy Theories.Professional Poisoners Leaving a Trail of Death.The criminal fraternity in colonial India was a...

  • Mirror To Damascus synopsis, comments

    Mirror To Damascus

    Colin Thubron

    A 50th anniversary edition of Colin Thubron's celebrated first book, a portrait of Syria's capital city, with a new introduction by the author.Described by the author as simply 'a ...

  • A New Voyage Round the World synopsis, comments

    A New Voyage Round the World

    William Dampier & Nicholas Thomas

    'A roaring tale ... remains as vivid and exciting today as it was on publication in 1697' GuardianThe pirate and adventurer William Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times, a...

  • White Mughals synopsis, comments

    White Mughals

    William Dalrymple

    White Mughals is the romantic and ultimately tragic tale of a passionate love affair that crossed and transcended all the cultural, religious and political boundaries of its time.J...

  • Around India in 80 Trains synopsis, comments

    Around India in 80 Trains

    Monisha Rajesh

    "Crackles and sparks with life like an exploding box of Diwali fireworks." William DalrympleIn 1991, Monisha Rajesh's family uprooted from Sheffield to Madras in the hope of makin...

  • Kublai Khan synopsis, comments

    Kublai Khan

    John Man

    In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure dome decreeKublai Khan lives on in the popular imagination thanks to these two lines of poetry by Coleridge. But the true story behind th...

  • Plats du Jour synopsis, comments

    Plats du Jour

    William Black

    There is more than a slight malaise in the air these days about French food and cooking. While the rest of the world delights in the intricacies of molecular gastronomy and even Br...

  • American Notes synopsis, comments

    American Notes

    Charles Dickens

    'Like Shakespeare, Dickens was able to embrace a whole world' John MortimerWhen Charles Dickens set out for America in 1842, he was the most famous man of his day to make the journ...

  • The Venetian Empire synopsis, comments

    The Venetian Empire

    Jan Morris

    For six centuries the Republic of Venice was a maritime empire, its sovereign power extending throughout much of the eastern Mediterranean – an empire of coasts, islands and isolat...

  • The Last Mughal synopsis, comments

    The Last Mughal

    William Dalrymple

    In this evocative study of the fall of the Mughal Empire and the beginning of the Raj, awardwinning historian William Dalrymple uses previously undiscovered sources to investigat...

  • The Patient Assassin synopsis, comments

    The Patient Assassin

    Anita Anand

    The “compelling [and] vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) true story of a man who claimed to be a survivor of a 1919 British massacre in India, his elaborate twentyyear plan fo...

  • Crossing Continents synopsis, comments

    Crossing Continents

    Duncan Campbell-Smith

    For almost a hundred years from the 1860s, the City of London's overseas banks financed the global trade that lay at the core of the British Empire. Foremost among them from the be...

  • Bullet Proof synopsis, comments

    Bullet Proof

    Matt Croucher GC

    AFGHANISTAN, FEBRUARY 2008: in an outofcontrol, dangerous country torn apart by war, littered with Taliban guerrilla forces and thousands of miles from home, Lance Corporal Matt Cr...

  • Snakes with Wings and Gold-digging Ants synopsis, comments

    Snakes with Wings and Gold-digging Ants

    Herodotus

    So much of what we know of the Ancient World comes from Herodotus (c.490 BC c.420 BC) that he will always remain the greatest of historians. But in addition such a large part of t...

  • The Age of Kali synopsis, comments

    The Age of Kali

    William Dalrymple

    From the author of The Last Mughal and Nine Lives: the classic stories he gathered during the ten years he spent journeying across the Indian subcontinent, from Sri Lanka and south...

  • Delhi and Agra synopsis, comments

    Delhi and Agra

    Michael Alexander

    Delhi claims a noble history as the site of at least seven capitals dating from before the time of Alexander the Great. The glorious Mogul Empire brought great riches to the city a...

  • Listening to Britain synopsis, comments

    Listening to Britain

    Jeremy A Crang & Paul Addison

    From May to September 1940, a period that saw some of the most dramatic events in British history including the evacuation of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and the opening stages...

  • Return of a King synopsis, comments

    Return of a King

    William Dalrymple

    From William Dalrympleawardwinning historian, journalist and travel writera masterly retelling of what was perhaps the West’s greatest imperial disaster in the East, and an importa...

  • The Underworld Captain synopsis, comments

    The Underworld Captain

    Alexander Shannon & David Leslie

    Alexander Shannon escaped a shady past to enjoy a glittering career in the army, only to end up back in the thick of criminal activity.Shannon's time as a soldier saw him posted to...

  • Two Wheels In The Dust synopsis, comments

    Two Wheels In The Dust

    Anne Mustoe

    India is no place for the fainthearted cyclist. The streets are jammed with cars, busses, rickshaws, animals, fortunetellers, barbers, beggars and people sleeping or cooking. Follo...

  • The Making Of The British Army synopsis, comments

    The Making Of The British Army

    Allan Mallinson

    Edgehill, 1642: Surveying the disastrous scene in the aftermath of the first battle of the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell realized that war could no longer be waged in the old,...

  • City of Djinns synopsis, comments

    City of Djinns

    William Dalrymple

    Peeling back the layers of Delhi’s centuriesold history, City of Djinns is an irresistible blend of research and adventure.Sparkling with irrepressible wit, City of Djinns peels ba...

  • From Aintree to York synopsis, comments

    From Aintree to York

    Stephen Cartmell

    Writer and psychologist Stephen Cartmell set off to explore Britain using the cultural melting pot of the UK's 60 racecourses as his staging posts. During his travels the author ob...

  • The Celts synopsis, comments

    The Celts

    Alice Roberts

    'Informed, impeccably researched and written' Neil OliverThe Celts are one of the world's most mysterious ancient people. In this compelling account, Alice Roberts takes us on a jo...

  • Viceroys synopsis, comments

    Viceroys

    Christopher Lee

    Between 1858 and 1947, twenty British men ruled millions of some of the most remarkable people of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.From the Indian Mutiny to the cruel religio...

  • Spending Time With Walter synopsis, comments

    Spending Time With Walter

    John Hartley Williams

    The long poem at the centre of John Hartley Williams' new collection is a dramatic monologue narrated by a laconic, possibly lamed, forest dweller, a lowly crewmember on a barg...

  • In Search Of The First Civilizations synopsis, comments

    In Search Of The First Civilizations

    Michael Wood

    Five thousand years ago there began the most momentous revolution in human history. Starting in Mesopotamia, city civilization emerged for the first time on earth, to be followed i...

  • For Love and Courage synopsis, comments

    For Love and Courage

    E. W. Hermon & Anne Nason

    Lt Colonel E.W. Hermon died in a hail of bullets on the 9th April 1917, the first day of the Battle of Arras, leading his men of the 24th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers into th...

  • From the Holy Mountain synopsis, comments

    From the Holy Mountain

    William Dalrymple

    In the spring of A.D. 587, John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius the Sophist embarked on a remarkable expedition across the entire Byzantine world, traveling from the shores of Bos...

  • In Xanadu synopsis, comments

    In Xanadu

    William Dalrymple

    William Dalrymple’s awardwinning first book: his classic, fiercely intelligent and wonderfully entertaining account of his journey across Marco Polo’s 700yearold route from Jerusal...

  • Tears of the Begums synopsis, comments

    Tears of the Begums

    Khwaja Hasan Nizami & Rana Safvi

    Apart from the fifteen years that Sher Shah Suri snatched upon defeating Humayun, the flag of the grand Mughal Empire flew over Delhi undefeated for over 300 years. But then, 1857 ...

  • Against the Flow synopsis, comments

    Against the Flow

    Tom Fort

    'You have to be on your guard when you go back to special places. You may be able to locate them easily enough on the map, but maps tell only one story. Times change and places and...

  • The Laws of Manu synopsis, comments

    The Laws of Manu

    Wendy Doniger

    The Laws of Manu form a towering work of Hindu philosophy. Composed by many Brahmin priests, this is an extraordinary, encyclopaedic representation of human life in the world, and ...

  • Culture and Anarchy synopsis, comments

    Culture and Anarchy

    Matthew Arnold

    "Culture and Anarchy" is Arnold's most famous piece of writing on culture which established his High Victorian cultural agenda and remained dominant in debate from the ...

  • The Hike synopsis, comments

    The Hike

    Don Shaw

    Freddy, Phil and Don are three grumpy old men, travelling at various speeds in the slow lane of retirement, at a loss to understand the mad modern world around them.Their chosen me...

  • A Coup in Turkey synopsis, comments

    A Coup in Turkey

    Jeremy Seal

    The most dramatic, revealing and littleknown story in Turkey's history which illuminates the nation'Through the spellbinding career of a single, illfated leader, Jeremy Seal illum...

  • Treading Grapes synopsis, comments

    Treading Grapes

    Rosemary George

    Tuscany offers some of the most spectacular scenery in Europe. The unique combination of cypress trees and olive groves mingling with vineyards and woods on undulating hillsides is...

  • The Story of Mankind - Illustrated History of the Human Civilization Retold for Children synopsis, comments

    The Story of Mankind - Illustrated History of the Human Civilization Retold for Children

    Hendrik Willem Van Loon

    The Story of Mankind covers the history of western civilization beginning with primitive man, the development of writing, art, and architecture, the rise of major religions, and th...

  • Time Pieces synopsis, comments

    Time Pieces

    Nayanjot Lahiri

    'There are many missing pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that is ancient India, but those we have yield a rich tapestry.'The oldest surviving love graffiti on a cave wall immortalizing ...