Istanbul
Diary
I have been in Istanbul, partly to research a French-born collateral ancestor of mine, Aimée Dubucq, who, according to legend,…
Washed up in Istanbul: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, by Elif Shafak, reviewed
Elif Shafak once described Istanbul as a set of matryoshka dolls: a place where anything was possible. As with much…
What Mary Wollstonecraft writes about motherhood is still so relevant
Walking into Fingal’s Cave, after scrambling across the rocks to reach it from the landing stage where the boat from…
The day Turkish democracy died
‘It’s official. Turkey is a banana republic!’ My friend Mustapha, a serial entrepreneur, sends me a flurry of doom-laden WhatsApp…
Well of sorrows
The Red-haired Woman is shorter than Orhan Pamuk’s best-known novels, and is, in comparison, pared down, written with deliberate simplicity…
The joy of the Proms
Summer nights, hot and humid, mean just one thing — it’s Proms season again. Sore feet, sweaty armpits, queuing outside…
Desperate straits
The Turkey-EU deal will do nothing to fix the migrant crisis. Just ask the people-smugglers in Istanbul
On the money
The Big Short is a drama about the American financial collapse of 2008. It talks you through sub-prime mortgages, tranches,…
Comics’ trip
Who says British television lacks imagination? You might have thought, for example, that every possible combination of comedian and travel…
Peeking into the seraglio
If you like to curl up by the fire with a proper, old-fashioned, saga-style tale about a boy and his…
Love and betrayal
The title of Charles Cumming’s seventh novel is both a nod to the comfortable polarities of Cold War and also…
