“Istanbul is a book that is never finished; it is a novel that keeps writing itself, with every step you take in it.” – Turkish author, Selim İleri This time, I travel from Asia to Europe, crossing the Bosphorus from Kadıköy to Eminönü. It is late afternoon and the sun glints off the waves, seagulls …
Read more “Salt, Cinnamon and Stories: A Literary Walk Through Istanbul”
There are two Cubas: the Cuba of the imagination, and then there’s the Cuba I remember. Twenty years ago. The imagined version was shiny, idealistic, full of 1950s glamour. It’s all revolutionary zeal and Hemingway, brightly-coloured Cadillacs and palm trees. The Cuba I remember is not quite the same. There are wind-battered palm trees on …
It was Tove Jansson’s classic, The Summer Book, that first introduced me to Scandinavian summers and archipelagos strewn confetti-like with tiny islands, those in turn dotted with brightly painted wooden cabins. The all-too-brief passing of the northern summer months, the sense of urgency to seize every moment of sunshine and dappled light, before “it is …
Read more “Embracing Slow Swedish Summers – Island Cabin Living”