A Turkish menu from ‘Ripe Figs’ by Yasmin Khan

To round off my few weeks of immersion in Turkish culture I prepared a delicious Turkish meze for my husband and me. I used the suggested Turkish meze menu from a great new cookbook, Ripe Figs by Yasmin Khan, which explores food and human stories from Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. I should make it clear …

Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)

A fascinating reflection on the childhood of a Nobel-prize winning author and on the cultural history of Istanbul

Elif Shafak’s novel ’10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World’ (Turkey)

NORTH AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA This is a bit of a throwback post, as some of it was first posted by me in 2019, and was in fact my fifth ever review on the blog. I’m re-posting with some additional discussion of publication prospects in the West for Turkish authors, as part of …

Turkish Art Week @ The Saatchi Gallery, London

In late October 2021 Turkish Art Week’s inaugural exhibition was held over a period of five days at the Saatchi Gallery in London’s fancy Chelsea. The show was organized by online art gallery and arts consultancy Renko London, which was founded by the (rather glamorous) London-based Turkish artist Renk Erbil: “now it’s Turkish art’s time …