The Million Star Hotel
I spent my penultimate night in Anatolia at a homestay in the village of Yuvacali (Yu-va-JA-li), following a day tour to the ‘bee hive’ houses of Harran, near the Syrian border, and the ancient sites of Sogmatar and Gőbekli Tepe – the latter, dated from 9000 BC, being the world’s oldest known religious temple. Both experiences were courtesy of Nomad…
Between the Rivers
In our country a look a wave of the hand means the world In our country there are no terraces of paradise no rewards from ‘The North Gate’ Bejan Matur Wikipedia will give you all the background facts: 25 to 30 million Kurds inhabit the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates, a region known since antiquity as…
Land of Buttermilk and Daisies
So why Kurdistan? As readers of previous posts may have gathered, I am here location scouting for my second novel, Astra. Without giving too much of the plot away, the book is set a century from now, after global warming has rendered much of the planet unfit for human habitation and the survivors of the catastrophe are slowly trying to…
Clicking with the Kurds
Arriving in Diyarbakir – one of the most remote and unexpected travel destinations I have ever set my heart on – was in the end a strangely familiar experience. I was the only Westerner on the plane, but rather than feeling isolated by my conspicuous presence in the crowd of Kurds, I found myself reconnecting with my past – the…
Step by Step to the Steppes
So, after two days in Istanbul – during which I discovered all the trains I wanted to take aren’t running – I’m packed and ready to fly to Diyarbakir tomorrow. This evening then, marks the end of the beginning of the first leg of my research trip to Kurdistan and Palestine. Does that make tonight the right ankle of my…
Upgrade Trauma: A Meditation on Ambition
My new Dell Inspiron laptop arrived yesterday. Having spent the last three months complaining to BlackBerry support about the malfunctioning touchscreen on my new ‘Playbook’ tablet – bought on sale as a Christmas present to self, and cause of nothing but warfare ever since – I was in fact dreading the arrival of this new piece of kit. Apart from…