Every week I try to have two what I call outing days in Istanbul. One is with my husband Kim and usually involves a museum or art gallery visit and lunch at one of our regular favourites. The aim is to enjoy each other’s company, learn something new, and of course, eat. For the second…
I’m pleased to announce the release of my latest book, Longing for Istanbul: The Words I Haven’t Said Yet. In the last two years while the world as we know it has turned upside down, I’ve worked hard to share my life in Istanbul through my blog and Facebook posts, Instagram pictures and tweets. The feedback…
I’ve been reading Barbara Nadel’s Çetin Ikmen detective series for many years now, and I always enjoy the way she combines aspects of Istanbul history, both past and present, with gritty crime stories. However the city she writes about isn’t the same as the real life one I inhabit, it’s a fictionalised version. Some Istanbul…
Until now I haven’t been a fan of Elif Safak’s writing. I found her early novels (The Bastard of Istanbul and The Flea Palace) disjointed and in the case of the latter, more like a collection of vignettes than a work of narrative fiction. However since reading The Three Daughters of Eve and most recently…
Everyone hopes their children and grandchildren go on to bigger and better things, but it’s unlikely Orhan Veli Kanik’s grandfathers expected their grandson would become a poet. They were both traders and yet they were exactly the people Veli had in mind when he created a new style of Turkish poetry directed at the people….
With Christmas fast approaching it’s time to think about presents that leave lasting memories. To me, that always means a book, and if it’s connected to Turkey in some way, even better. I’ve read hundreds of books on Turkey so deciding on titles to include in this Christmas book gift ideas list was hard work….
The story in Not Constantinople follows a young American couple who come to Istanbul planning to work for a few years, save money and then go back home to buy a house. Fred and Virginia’s dream comes to an abrupt halt when they return to their rented Istanbul apartment one night to find a family…
I’m Lisa Morrow, writer, sociologist and author, but more importantly I’m someone who has a real passion for Turkey. I’ve lived in Istanbul and other parts of the country for more than 12 years and counting, after first travelling in Turkey in 1990. I was surprised to learn, after reading a comment on a social…
The idea for the Orhan Pamuk Museum of Innocence in Istanbul was based on his novel of the same name, and was conceived at the same time as the idea for the book. They simultaneously came into thought in the 1990s, and the novel was published in 2008 while the museum opened later, in 2012….
There’s an awful lot of information on traditional Turkish life available, but things change. Read on to get a taste of contemporary life in Istanbul through this excerpt from my memoir Istanbul Dreams. “…Since I first came to Turkey more than twenty years ago, trade has opened up, overseas travel has become cheaper, and society…