Empire

A modern take on the rise and fall of empires - not entirely in the style of Gibbon or Toynbee. The format is reassuringly repetitive - a knowledgable guest lectures on a subject, with historical observations from William and journalistic questioning - questions that also keep the story moving along - from Anita. Essential listening every week.

I am a big fan of William Dalrymple’s books, having read all of them. Therefore, I was expecting much better when I started listening to this podcast. I have been sorely disappointed though. On the one hand we have Anita Anand interrupting all the time and repeating things at least three times (she obviously finds herself to be great fun). On the other, William trying to laugh faithfully at her dull jokes. It is almost painful to listen to. Moreover, their vision of history is often distorted and biased, in an apparent effort to sound modern and politically correct. Namely, the flagellation of the West, so much in fashion nowadays, is constant – which brings to mind the Monty Python sketch on the contribution of the Roman Empire to Judaea. Summing up: Those interested in history instead of light banter are advised to look for other sources.