William Dalrymple

“To subdue and crush the masses of a nation by military force, when all are unanimous in the determination to be free,…

— William Dalrymple

For me they go hand in hand. When I travel it makes me want to write, when I read it makes me…

— William Dalrymple

Partition was a total catastrophe for Delhi,’ she said. ‘Those who were left behind are in misery. Those who were uprooted are…

— William Dalrymple

“Across the broken apses and shattered naves of a hundred ruined Byzantine churches, the same smooth, cold, neo-classical faces of the saints…

— William Dalrymple

“During the war, my son Alfred [Cochrane] went up [to Bsharre, in Lebanon] to see some friends. On the road, he was…

— William Dalrymple

“There was that all-pervasive evening scent of cut grass and jasmine.”

— William Dalrymple

“I lost my mother when I was three years old. She had some small injury – a piece of metal pierced her…

— William Dalrymple

“...'unless you convert to Orthodoxy, you too will follow your Pope down that valley, through the scorching fire. We will watch you…

— William Dalrymple

“Few, few shall part where many meet, The snow shall be their winding sheet; And every turf beneath their feet Shall be…

— William Dalrymple

...Dean Mohamet, a Muslim landowner from Patna who had followed his British patron to Ireland. There he soon eloped with, and later…

— William Dalrymple

“Thanks to all Zafar’s precautions, ‘Id passed peacefully on 1 August. The British, who were aware through their spies of the growing…

— William Dalrymple

“The first Embassy to Afghanistan by a western power left the Company's Delhi Residency on 13 October 1808, with the Ambassador accompanied…

— William Dalrymple

“I grew up in extreme poverty,’ said Hari Das. ‘Like me, my father was a day labourer, who also did theyyam during…

— William Dalrymple

“One day Lal shahbaz was wandering in the desert with his friend Sheikh Bhaa ud-Din Zakariya. It was winter, and evening time,…

— William Dalrymple

“The Byzantines looked on these stylites as intermediaries, go-betweens who could transmit their deepest fears and aspirations to the distant court of…

— William Dalrymple

Mr William, he said, in my life six times have I crashed, and on not one occasion have I ever been killed.(…

— William Dalrymple

India has always had a strange way with her conquerors. In defeat, she beckons them in, then slowly seduces, assimilates and transforms…

— William Dalrymple