Books by William Dalrymple
Travel writer and historian William Dalrymple wrote his first book, In Xanadu, at the age of 22. Since then he has published many more books and been awarded a host of awards for his writing and broadcasting. He is a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and of the Royal Society of Literature.
“It makes the case for India as a major driver of cultural change from about 250 BCE to 1200 CE. It tracks two things: the spread of Buddhism and the spread of Indian mathematics across the region and around the world…while I was familiar with the broad outlines of the story told in The Golden Road, most of the details I was not. Once I got past the introduction, I found the book hard to put down.” Read more...
Notable Nonfiction Books of Fall 2024
Sophie Roell, Journalist
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
by William Dalrymple
The latest book from William Dalrymple takes a damning look at the British East India Company, the corporation set up in the early 17th century with a monopoly on British trade with the east. The company was the means by which Britain established control of India over the course of the 18th century. Dalrymple shows that this was not an enlightened project with one or two regrettable incidents, but an astonishingly brutal and rapacious adventure, backed by military force. An engaging and enlightening read.
Benedict King, Contributing Editor
Interviews with William Dalrymple
The best books on India, Ancient and Modern, recommended by William Dalrymple
The award-winning writer selects five books on India and says that the Mahabharata, eight times the length of the Bible, is one of the great works of literature of mankind – and every bit as good as it’s made out to be
Interviews where books by William Dalrymple were recommended
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1
The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years
by Sunil Amrith -
2
The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin
by Lucy Ash -
3
The Golden Road
by William Dalrymple -
4
Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance
by Bronwen Everill -
5
Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women's Health
by Sophie Harman -
6
Sound Tracks: A Musical Detective Story
by Graeme Lawson
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 British Academy Book Prize, recommended by Rebecca Earle
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 British Academy Book Prize, recommended by Rebecca Earle
To be shortlisted for the annual British Academy Book Prize, books have to be both rigorously researched and highly readable. Historian Rebecca Earle, chair of the 2025 judging panel, talks us through the books that made this year’s shortlist, from an environmental history that opens with Genghis Khan and the Mongol expansion to a ‘musical detective story’ that investigates the sounds made by our ancestors down the millennia.
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1
Patriot: A Memoir
by Alexei Navalny, translated by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel -
2
Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia
by Stephanie Baker -
3
Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich
by Richard J. Evans -
4
The Golden Road
by William Dalrymple -
5
The Peepshow: The Murders at Rillington Place
by Kate Summerscale
Notable Nonfiction Books of Fall 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
Notable Nonfiction Books of Fall 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
From the memoir of the brave politician who opposed Putin, to how the culture of ancient and early medieval India transformed the world, from a book about the people who surrounded Hitler, to a serial killer in 1950s London, Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, introduces some of her favourite nonfiction books published in the last three months.
