William Dalrymple Keynote Speaker

  • Historian, Author and Co founder - Co director of annual Jaipur Literary Festival
  • Thomas Cook Travel Book Award-Winning Writer, the Hemingway Award-Winning Writer
  • Esteemed and Published Author Awarded for his contributions to "Understanding to Contemporary Islam"

William Dalrymple's Biography

William Dalrymple is an eminent historian, author, curator and art historian.  He is a co-founder and co-director of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival. His interests include the history and art of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Muslim world, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Jains and early Eastern Christianity. An established and award-winning author, William has published many books, ranging from a book of essays about current affairs in the Indian Subcontinent and travel books. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages, and all eight of his books have won literary prizes.

William is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, the New Statesman, and The New Yorker. He has written for Time magazine and since 2004, he has been the Indian Subcontinent correspondent of the New Statesman. In 2012, William was appointed a Whitney J. Oates Visiting Fellow in the Humanities by Princeton University. In 2015, he was delegated as the OP Jindal Distinguished Lecturer at Brown University. Following this, in 2018, he was awarded the President’s Medal of the British Academy. His acclaimed books have won many awards and prizes, including the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Hemingway, the Kapuściński and the Wolfson Prizes. He has been five times longlisted and once shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.

The television series, Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, which were written and presented by him, won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. In 2008, William attended the Palestine Festival of Literature and gave readings and took upon workshops in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem. His book, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, became the number one slot in the Indian non-fiction section best-seller list. Since its esteemed publication, William has been touring the UK, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, Holland and the US with several feature guests in his book including: Sufis, Fakris, Bauls, Theveram hymn singers as well as a prison warder and a Theyyam dancer widely believed to be an incarnation of the God Vishnu. His book, The Anarchy, published in 2019, is a history of the Indian Subcontinent during 1739 to 1803, which saw the collapse of the Mughal imperial system, rise of the MAratha imperial confederacy, and the militarisation and rise of power of the East India Company.

William is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Asiatic Society, and is a founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival. He is a regular contributor to the New Yorker, the Guardian, the TLS, and the New York Review of Books, and is the India correspondent of the New Statesman. In 2002, William was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. This was for his ‘outstanding contribution to travel literature’. In 2005, he received the Sykes Medal from the Royal Society for Asian Affairs for his contribution “to understanding contemporary Islam.” In 2008, he won the James Todd Memorial Prize and in 2011, he was awarded the Media Citizen Puraskar by the Indian Confederation of NGOs for emphasizing on the issues of global importance and concern.

Read More

Books by William Dalrymple

In Xanadu
City of Djinns
From the Holy Mountain
White Mughals
Nine Lives
The Last Mughal
Return of a King
Kohinoor: The Story of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond
The Anarchy

Check William Dalrymple's speaking fees and availability

    Sending your message…

    Please wait, this can take a moment

    Message sent…

    Close

    Please provide your details and we’ll get in touch as soon as possible.

    We can only respond to requests for professional speaking engagements. We are unable to respond to requests for autographs, shoutouts and personalized messages.

    Discover other speakers

    Tahmima Anam Speaker
    Exclusive
    Tahmima Anam
    Anthropologist and author
    David Wengrow headshot
    David Wengrow Speaker
    Exclusive
    David Wengrow
    British Archaeologist and Author of New York Times Bestseller, The Dawn of Everything
    Janan Ganesh Speaker
    Exclusive
    Janan Ganesh
    Associate Editor at the Financial Times
    Edward Chancellor Speaker
    Exclusive
    Edward Chancellor
    Financial historian, investment strategist and journalist. Author of several investment books, including 'The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest'.
    Jeff Benedict Speaker
    Exclusive
    Jeff Benedict
    Best-Selling Author & Special Features Writer, Sports Illustrated
    Leanne Benjamin Speaker
    Exclusive
    Leanne Benjamin
    Former Principal Dancer, The Royal Ballet
    Jeremy Myerson Speaker
    Exclusive
    Jeremy Myerson
    Expert on bringing inclusive approach to the future of work
    Kathryn Schulz Speaker
    Exclusive
    Kathryn Schulz
    Author, Pulitzer Prize Winning journalist, and staff writer at The New Yorker
    Russell Napier Speaker
    Exclusive
    Russell Napier
    Independent global financial market strategist
    David Lough Speaker
    Exclusive
    David Lough
    Historian, Author and Broadcaster