One of the UK’s greatest historians, William Dalrymple is no stranger to researching the treasures of India. Dalrymple sits down with Georgina Godwin to discuss his latest work, “The Golden Road”, which outlines ancient Indian cultures, ideas and inventions and how they influenced the western world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello, this is Meet the Writers.
I'm Georgina Godwin.
My guest today is one of Britain's greatest historians and the bestselling author of prize winning books on India.
He's been described as India's favourite historian.
As a frequent broadcaster, he's written and presented three BAFTA winning television series and he currently co hosts the Empire podcast.
He's a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has held visiting fellowships at Princeton, Brown and Oxford.
He writes regularly for the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker and The Guardian.
In 2018, he was presented with the prestigious President's Medal by the British Academy for his outstanding literary achievement and for co founding the Jaipur Literature Festival, the biggest literary event in the world.
His latest work, the Golden Road, outlines ancient Indian cultures, ideas and inventions and how they influence the Western world.
William Dalrymple.
Welcome to meet the writers.
Very, very nice to have me.
Thank you.
Very kind to have me.
It's very, it's very lovely to finally pin you down.
You're a busy man, you travel a lot and here you are.
You have an absolutely fascinating background and I want you to start by telling me about your ancestors.
Well, if you'd asked me where my ancestors operated and who they were at any point in my up to my 20s, I'd have replied that it was a very perfectly simple answer.
That they were a bunch of Scottish lairds, briefly important around the time of the act of the Union.
Performers, relations of some of the most notorious figures in Scottish history who performed things like the Massacre of Glencoe, but an entirely Scottish background, as far as I was aware.