‘India, not China, is the historic centre of the Asian world’

William Dalrymple likes food. But that can wait – so, too, can his latest book. Instead, the travel writer and historian immediately starts talking about his next book – the topic of which has occurred to him overnight.

“This one is the pirate story of all pirate stories, and it’s got all sorts of shades of grey,” he says as we sit under a canvas awning in a Melbourne laneway.

Loading…