William Dalrymple

Welcome to the official website of William Dalrymple, the writer and historian

Koh-i-Noor

William’s latest book is a joint project with author and broadcaster Anita Anand. Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond tells the thrilling, stranger than fiction history of the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world.

Koh-i-Noor is published by Bloomsbury in the UK and US, and by Juggernaut Books in India.

Praise for Koh-I-Noor


The Book Seller: “Bringing to life the history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, and its mysterious, bloody journey across the world to the crown of the Queen Mother, expect a masterclass in narrative history ... A gem indeed”
... read full review

Ysenda Maxtone Graham
The Times: “A book must be good if it makes me buy tickets to revisit the Tower of London, an expensive family day out that I’ve been putting off for decades. After finishing this history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, however, I needed to set eyes on the great ‘mountain of light’”
... read full review

Robert Leigh-Pemberton
The Daily Telegraph: “William Dalrymple and Anita Anand’s well-researched Koh-i-Noor is the latest attempt to shake off the ‘bazaar gossip’ that has surrounded this troublesome stone … Dalrymple and Anand’s tale is a writer’s gift: gruesome and ceaselessly dramatic.”
... read full review

Read further reviews and a synoposis

Other Books by William

Praise for
The Last Mughal

“A compulsively readable masterpiece... ”
New York Review of Books: “Brims with life, colour and complexity. An outstanding book, distinguished by its painstaking research, narrative flair and imagination”
Evening Standard: “Brilliant ... a magnificent, multi-dimensional work which shames the simplistic efforts of previous writers”
David Gilmour, Spectator: “Dalrymple is an outstandingly gifted historian”
Max Hastings, Sunday Times

Read further reviews, quotes and a synoposis

Praise for
White Mughals

“William Dalrymple is that rarity, a scholar of history who can really write. This is a brilliant and compulsively readable book”
Salman Rushdie: “Dalrymple’s irresistible masterpiece”
Philip Mansel, Spectator Books of the Year: “A bravura display of scholarship, writing and insight. Dalrymple manages the incredible feat of outpointing most historians and most novelists in one go. This is quite simply a stunning achievement”
Frank Mclynn, Independent on Sunday