Chintz, calico and muslin; paisley, embroidery; jodhpurs, turbans - all have been used by designers such as Schiaparelli, Poiret, Balmain, Rhodes, Saint Laurent, Gauliter, McQueen...
Garments to tents in South Asia in the C16th-C17th. Richly illustrated, this book shows cloth participated in both political and social spheres, and reflected seasonal rhythms.
From Buddhist, Jain and Hindu temples through to Islamic and European centres of worship and commerce, this two volume set covers two-thousand years of Indian architectural history.
Vol. 1... read more
A superb account of how European imperialism in Asia was undermined by a network of ingenious radicals, who used printing presses, global travel and the colonisers' languages to spread their... read more
The latest in Penguin's handsome and imaginative anthologies of national literatures: a hundred years of stories from the colonial period to the present.
800 years of cave paintings, from the C2nd BC to the C6th CE: a revised edition with digitally restored images, and a new introduction by Dalrymple who has been researching the history of Bu... read more
Indian folk rituals and rites, customs and celebrations, presented through a sequence of photographic portraits. With contributions by Anuradha Roy, Catherine Clement and Kuha Kopariha.
An anthology of the writings by the often overlooked women of the Raj, many of whom flourished in India - Fanny Parks, Emily Eden et alia. A fascinating counterpoint to the stereotypical vie... read more
Amrit Kaur was a Punjabi princess who lived in Paris in the 1930s, and who sold her jewellery to help save Jews. Arrested by the Gestapo, she died in a concentration camp.
The author's mother came from a Sikh family that fled the Punjab in Partition; later she moved to Berlin and Washington. A fine memoir of family whose identity and roots have been complicate... read more
How the daughter of Babur, first Mughal Emperor, wrangled her way out of the harem (for a while) to travel around India, to Persia and beyond. Based on her own account.
A first edition, first impression of William Dalrymple's evocative and riveting portrayal of the last days of the Mughal empire and of Zafar, its last emperor. The book is in fine condition ... read more
He ruled an area of the Indian subcontinent greater than anyone until the British 2000 years later; famously he renounced war for Buddhism and promoted religious toleration throughout his mu... read more
Indian family drama revolving around an ambitious and bright but easily distracted daughter who hasn't yet heard that her father has died. Fraught, lyrical, set against the backdrop of relig... read more
Zulfikar was executed in 1979; three of his children were murdered. One can understand why the brilliant author Fatima keeps her distance from politics.