The following is an excerpt from my travel memoir Istanbul Dreams: Waiting for the Tulips to Bloom. Once inside the local Turkish hamam “we ducked through a low door and stepped into a marble lined area where there were toilets and through to an antechamber with low marble benches and a few basins around the…
Excerpt from ‘Dancing Away the Sequins’. In many traditional Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures women are responsible for ensuring the honour of the family. Men’s passions are uncontrollable and wild, and all women are Eve, the temptress with the apple. He cannot help but succumb so a man is never held responsible for his sexual…
For my first Turkish Ramazan I was living in Istanbul. It was November 2000 and I was living in Erenköy, a leafy suburb on the Asian side of the city. At that time there were no natural gas connections so the air was thick with coal smoke from apartment heating systems, darkness fell around 5pm…
This story comes from my book Exploring Turkish Landscapes: Crossing Inner Boundaries. When I was at high school I studied history. Learning dates wasn’t something I was any good at and while I didn’t actually fail, it was a struggle. The facts and figures the teacher wrote on the board lacked colour and excitement and…
There are many things I love about my life in Istanbul, in particular the way the locals prepare for traditional Turkish celebrations. Whether the special event is a wedding, Christmas, New Year’s Eve or Ramazan, they approach it in their own truly unique style. Here are some photos I’ve taken over the years that give…
The following is an excerpt about Kocek Dancers from my first collection of stories. One Saturday last summer I was on the phone chatting with my 94 year old auntie in Australia. She and I love to talk and can do so for hours but this time I was distracted. The sound of drumming was…