What I've Learnt: William Dalrymple

Every writer has teachers who inspired them when they were young. In my case there were two of them. My history teacher was a Benedictine monk, a wonderful scholar who taught me the value of rigour and persistence. He passed away last year. My English teacher at school was also very encouraging of my literary pursuits. She still sends me notes after reading my books.

I was born in Edinburgh and I grew up at a place called East Lothian, far away from anything that would be of interest to a young boy. And it was hardly a place known for writers. My late father, a soldier, was posted there and later served as Lord Lieutenant of East Lothian. In many ways it was a quite sequestered childhood. But this is Scotland, so everything around us was quite beautiful as well.

When you're a young man writing books, there is always this niggling doubt at the back of your head, that you’re an imposter and you will soon be caught at last. I think every young writer with a modicum of self-awareness feels this way and I was no different.

A place I am endlessly fascinated with a Rajasthan. It’s been several decades since I first visited and it’s the same sense of wonder that I experience every single time. And it goes beyond the place and the fabulously hospitable people. I have also been fascinated by Rajasthani cultural traditions. Their oral narratives, like the epic of Pabuji, are marvels, really.

Learning can be incredibly fast and efficient with the internet but it can also lead you down a rabbit-hole of propaganda and falsehoods. So, one has to be careful at every step along the way.

Historians have a duty, in this age of misinformation to be precise, thorough and transparent in their methodology. They have a responsibility to read and draw from primary sources, and without bias or preconceived notions, write as honest a narrative as they possibly can.

If we want a better-informed readership, one that values well-written and thoroughly researched histories, we have to stand by those ideals ourselves.

Year one of starting a new project probably begins with doing a round of interviews for the last book, and reading secondary sources while that process is ongoing. Years two and three involve the core of the research, reading primary source material. The next couple of years is for the actual writing itself. Towards the home stretch, in the final six months or so, I will stop being social and going outside and focus on getting the writing done.

I am not a natural at podcasting although I am gradually picking up the tricks of the trade, so to speak.Anita Anand, who created the Empire podcast with me, is an absolute wizard at it. She has perfect timing and knows how to break down complex arguments in real time.

I turned 60 recently. If I could meet my 30-year-old self today, I would advise him to relax and worry less. I would tell him that the decision to be a writer was the correct one in the end.

Writers should temper the urge to self-edit in perpetuity. At a certain point, once you have the fundamentals in order, when you’ve dotted your ‘i’s and crossed your ‘t’s, it’s best to let a new set of eyes go through your work because they will, inevitably, offer a fresher perspective than anything you can come up yourself with following the sixth or the seventh draft.

One of my biggest learnings from the Jaipur Literature Festival is the value of collaboration, of working with each other’s strengths and covering for our weaknesses. The three of us, Sanjoy Roy, Namita Gokhale and myself, we are all aware of each other’s strengths. Namita is a fantastic writer of fiction, and she is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about bhasha literature from all the different languages across India. I am a writer of non-fiction books and I am in touch with the international literary scene, I help us bring writers from around the world to Jaipur. And, of course, the festival would not have been possible without Sanjoy’s vision, his energy and his organisational genius.

To read more such stories from Esquire India's February 2026 issue, pick up a copy of the magazine from your nearest newspaper stand or bookstore. Or click here to subscribe to the magazine.