Bridges and Bigots in London
I went for a meal at a Bengali restaurant on Butler’s Wharf alongside the Thames on Saturday night, for a friend’s wedding. His mum is Turkish, dad Bengali and wife […]
Author Archives: theromantictraveller
A Lust for Life in Lycia
Lycia is a region of Turkey in the southwest of the country, roughly between the bays of Antalya and Fethiye. It is one of the most fascinating parts of Anatolia, […]
City of the Heretic Pharaoh
The reign of the pharaoh Amenhotep IV is unique amongst those of other rulers in Egyptian history. He adopted the name Akhenaten when he took the throne, and rather than […]
Blizzards of blood at Towton
I’ve been obsessed with the Battle of Towton for as long as I can remember. On Palm Sunday 1461, outside the Yorkshire village of that name, Lancastrian and Yorkist forces […]
Fans for the memories
This summer I dropped in to the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul to see an exhibition which is the first of its kind in Turkey. It included a rare and […]
Cool calligraphy in Istanbul
Istanbul is the capital of the exquisitely fine art of Islamic calligraphy. In Ottoman times there were hundreds of libraries here, but the city was and still is a library […]
Tunceli – holy mountains, romantic castles and fine wines
Elazig’s history, as ancient Harput, goes back to 3000BC. Today, it’s home to a prestigious university and is a thoroughly modern town. I took a domestic flight here from Istanbul’s […]
The Crescent in retreat
Cyprus is especially good on castles, including Paphos, Buffavento, Kyrenia, Kolossi and a few more, reflecting the island’s long and eventful history as a major trading stopover in the Mediterranean. […]
No sanctuary in Durham Cathedral
“Dear Sir – I came to visit our (not just your) beautiful cathedral last week. As I was taking a couple of photos without flash a bossy little woman in […]
Magical names and historical bastards
‘Wadi Rum’, ‘The Valley of the Moon’, ‘Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ – magical and evocative names all. As Dr Jones says at one point in Raiders, ‘This is what we […]
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