William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple was born in Scotland in 1965, studied History at Cambridge, and has spent much of his adult life in Delhi, where he has lived for decades. He is simultaneously a travel writer, a historian, and a journalist, and the combination gives his books an unusual solidity.

In Xanadu (1989), written at 22, followed the route of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Xanadu — still a remarkable piece of travel writing for its ambition and for what it noticed. City of Djinns (1993), about Delhi, was the book that established his reputation in India — a year in the city moving between its multiple historical layers, from the Mughal courts to the British cantonment to the contemporary megacity.

From the Holy Mountain (1997), in which he followed the route of a 6th-century Byzantine monk through the Christian communities of the Middle East, is probably his best travel book — a journey through communities that were ancient when Islam arrived and are now, in some cases, surviving only barely.

The Last Mughal (2006), Nine Lives (2009), and Return of a King (2013) moved progressively away from travel writing and toward history, a transition that his readers have largely followed. He is now one of the most important historians of the British Empire and its aftermath in South Asia.

He is also the co-founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival, which has become the largest literary festival in Asia.