William Dalrymple brings Ancient India to life at Falmouth Book Festival

William Dalrymple takes the stage at The Poly, Falmouth as part of Falmouth Book Festival’s summer programme, August 2025. (Photo: Danielle Hutchinson).

On a rainy August evening, a sold-out auditorium in Falmouth gathered to listen as celebrated historian and author William Dalrymple transported them back in time to Ancient India.

From mathematics to mythology; literature to linguistics, Dalrymple led the audience on a journey along ‘The Golden Road’, showcasing how India laid the foundations for the modern world. Despite the contributions of the country being often overlooked, Dalrymple illustrated how early centuries of Indian innovation have shaped society as we know it today.

“India is one of those countries which, very early on, came up with a set of profound answers to the basic questions that man asks himself: why are we here; how do you live a moral life; what is the relationship between this earth and the heavens; the planets?”

“It wasn’t of course, the only country to do so – in this part of the world we’re more familiar with the answers produced by the Ancient Greeks, which we learn early in our education. I suspect everyone in this room knew about Archimedes in his bath shouting ‘eureka’, or Pythagoras and his theorem from a young age.”

Yet Dalrymple believes that crucial theorists are overlooked in European education syllabuses.

“Few would have heard of their Indian equivalents, names like Aryabhata and Brahmagupta – who arguably altered our Western understanding of mathematics more than Pythagoras."

Aryabhata came up with the circumference of earth by about 400AD and almost the exact distance between our planet and the sun. Brahmagupta created the concept of the number ‘zero’ and perfected the idea of place value.

By skilfully explaining their achievements to the audience, Dalrymple highlighted how remarkable it is that the names of these great minds do not appear in our textbooks.

Director of Falmouth Book Festival Colin Midson reflected on the brilliance of Dalrymple, not only as a historian but as a storyteller.

“It’s one thing having the knowledge but it’s another thing knowing how to tell it as a story which is what marks a really good writer. He’s just spoken for almost an hour and twenty minutes but left people wanting more – it’s amazing."

William Dalrymple’s latest book ‘The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World’ formed the basis of his talk at Falmouth Book Festival, August 2025. (Photo: Danielle Hutchinson).

Dalrymple himself is no stranger to literary festivals. He founded the Jaipur Literary Festival back in 2006, which has now grown into ‘the greatest literary show on Earth’, attracting over a million book lovers from around the globe.

Here in Falmouth, the audience were keen to hear more about his experience of founding the Indian literary festival, as well as recording his acclaimed podcast ‘Empire’, and spending time in the studio to record the audiobook for ‘The Golden Road’.

Dalrymple explained that he relished the chance to finally record his own book after years of hearing them being “butchered” by actors who couldn’t pronounce the words.

“I’d never recorded an audiobook before - I was considered to have too sibilant a voice by my publishers, so I’ve had to listen to my books being butchered… I’m very pleased to do it myself and it was fun; I enjoyed it actually.”

“It’s a very intense week; you have a week to [record] it. I was with the woman from Bridgerton who was recording in the next studio. We had a hell of a time, lots of chocolate biscuits and strong cups of coffee!”

Following the Q&A, the audience were able to purchase copies of Dalrymple’s books, courtesy of Falmouth Bookseller, and chat to the author as he signed each copy.

He shared his excitement at being back in Cornwall and plans to investigate his great grandfather’s encounters with Henry Tuke, a celebrated artist from Falmouth.

Following the talk, the audience queued along the stage to get their hands on a copy of Dalrymple’s book from the Falmouth Bookseller (left), before meeting the author to have their books signed (right). August 2025. (Photos: Danielle Hutchinson).

Now in its fifth year, Falmouth Book Festival has been building momentum and director Colin Midson believes that the success of Dalrymple’s appearance in the summer programme is a positive indicator for the festival’s full return in October.

“It’s great to see this many people turn out to a book event in Falmouth on an August evening in the summer holidays. It’s really encouraging and it’s hopefully an indication that there’s a real community building up around the book festival.”

This year’s Falmouth Book Festival runs from Monday 20th to Sunday 26th October, featuring in its line-up Prue Leith, Irvine Welsh, and Fern Britton to name a few…

Tickets are available now and selling fast – get booking!*

*get it…? Book pun… never mind – we’ll see you there!