It’s beginning to look as though some of the best travel writing today is being wedged in between the flimsy covers of crime novels. I wish I had a pound for everyone who went to Istanbul because they’ve read one of my crime stories. Royalties being what they are, maybe I do? But I mean,…
The Janissary Tree is the first book in Jason Goodwin’s “Yashim” series. Read n extended excerpt of Chapters 1-7! It is 1836. Europe is modernizing, and the Ottoman Empire must follow suit. But just before the Sultan announces sweeping changes, a wave of murders threatens the fragile balance of power in his court. Who is behind them?…
Jason Goodwin fell under the spell of Istanbul while studying Byzantine history at Cambridge University. Fifteen years ago, following the success of The Gunpowder Gardens: Travels in China and India in search of tea, he made a six-month pilgrimage across eastern Europe to reach the city for the first time, a journey recounted in On…
