William Dalrymple
William Dalrymple’s latest book, The Last Mughal: The Eclipse of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 (Bloomsbury) was the winner of the 2007 Duff Cooper Prize and was longlisted for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize. He is, according to Max Hastings of The Sunday Times “an outstandingly gifted travel writer and historian who excels himself in his latest work.”
Born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth, William Dalrymple wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu (1989) when he was just 22. He has since written six novels including City of Djinns, From The Holy Mountains, The Age of Kali, and White Mugals, which won the Wolfson Prize for History 2003 and the Scottish Book of the Year Prize.
The Evening Standard’s Dominic Sandbrook is a big fan of The Last Mughal, calling it “terrific… [it] brims with life, colour and complexity…and will make even the most jingoistic reader think again about the effects of British rule in India… Outstanding…one of the best history books of the year.”
William is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic Society. His Radio 4 series on the history of British spirituality and mysticism, The Long Search, won the 2002 Sandford St Martin Prize for Religious Broadcasting.
He is married to the artist Olivia Fraser, and they have three children. They now divide their time between London and Delhi.
“Dalrymple writes with great verve, clarity and style.”
Literary Review
Links:
- Stanfords interview with William Dalrymple
- William Dalrymple’s articles in the New Statesman
Video:
Watch William Dalrymple on The Book Show (Sky Arts):
