William Dalrymple

The historian and art historian William Dalrymple was born in 1965 on the outskirts of Edinburgh and initially worked as a columnist for "The Independent" newspaper. His first book, "In Xanadu" (1989), was written when he was twenty-two years old and won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award the following year, as well as the Scottish Arts Council Award. In 1989, Dalrymple went to New Delhi, where he stayed for four years conducting research for his second book, "City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi" (1994), which won the "Sunday Times" Young British Writer of the Year Award. His third book, "From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium" (1997), was published in Greek by Oceanida. This was followed by his historical books on India, including "White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India" (2002), "Begums, Thugs and White Mughals - The Journals of Fanny Parkes" (2002), "The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857" (2006), "Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred India" (2009) (published in Greek by Metaichmio as "Ιερή Ινδία"), and "Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi 1707-1857" (2012). He is married to artist Olivia Fraser and divides his time between London, Edinburgh, and New Delhi. Together with author Namita Gokhale, he founded and has been directing the Jaipur Literature Festival since 2006, which is the largest literary festival in Asia according to the "Mail on Sunday" newspaper.