How did you come to settle down in India? You have been spending about nine months a year there for much of the last two decades.
I spent my childhood in rural Scotland and we hardly took a holiday because my parents were convinced they lived in the most beautiful place possible. Though I had visited many cities before I reached Delhi, it somehow had a more overwhelming effect on me than it would have had on other, more cosmopolitan teenagers. It hooked me from the start. I did some voluntary work in Delhi at a home run by Mother Teresa.
In between work shifts, whenever the patients would take a siesta, I would take a rickshaw into the old city. It was a matter of days before I began to be fascinated with the Mughals. It was in Delhi that I first thought of writing a history of the Mughals.
The idea expanded into a four-volume history of the Mughal dynasty that may take me a long time to complete. People ask me if I want to write novels set in the period. I do not think I can do it. I am a historian and I enjoy writing these books.
How has The Last Mughal been received?
It has had incredible success in India. I knew it would do well in England because my previous books [such as White Mughals] have sold very well there. But the way it has been accepted in India has surprised me. I am a gora (white man) writing about a very sensitive subject, but the material I had at my disposal was unusual and people are now looking at 1857 in a very different light.
It has sold 35,000 copies in hard cover in just about three months, which is an amazing thing in India.
In England, the reviews have been mostly positive. Of course, some conservative politicians and commentators cannot accept its viewpoint. I got accused in The Observer of bashing the British (chuckles).
Image: William Dalrymple about to sign a copy of his book at the Asia Society in New York.
Photograph: Mohammed Jaffer-SnapsIndia
Also see: Images: The 1857 celebrations begin
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