Where was William Dalrymple born and when?
William Dalrymple was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 20th of March 1965. He is the youngest son of Major Sir Hew Hamilton-Dalrymple, 10th Baronet, and Lady Anne-Louise Keppel.
Questions about William Dalrymple
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the Jaipur Literature Festival and what is William Dalrymple's role in it?
The Jaipur Literature Festival is the largest writers' festival in the world, held annually in India. Dalrymple is one of its co-founders and co-directors.
What awards has William Dalrymple won for his writing and broadcasting?
Dalrymple has won the Wolfson History Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Arthur Ross Medal of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, and the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. In 2018 he received the President's Medal of the British Academy, and in 2023 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
How many languages have William Dalrymple's books been translated into?
Dalrymple's books have been translated into more than forty languages. Every one of his ten books has won a literary prize.
What is the Empire podcast and how successful has it been?
Empire is a podcast created in 2022 by Dalrymple and journalist Anita Anand examining the British East India Company and its influence on India. It went straight to number one in the UK Apple Podcast charts and gathered more than ninety million downloads in its first two years, receiving two nominations for UK Podcast of the Year at the Broadcasting Press Guild Audio Awards.
What is William Dalrymple's Company Quartet about?
The Company Quartet is a series of four award-winning history books tracing the East India Company's interactions with the peoples of India and Afghanistan from the eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. The most recent, The Anarchy, covers 1739-1803 and won the 2020 Arthur Ross Bronze Medal from the US Council on Foreign Relations.