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”
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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.”
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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