Yaffa Rocks
First day in Israel-Palestine, and a stop in Tel Aviv en route to Jerusalem, Jenin and Ramallah. But what to do in a city you are boycotting? Protest, of course. Today I joined Arab and Jewish Israeli activists demonstrating in Yaffa – AKA Jaffa or Yafo, the old Arab town now subsumed by Tel Aviv – in support of the…
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…
I Rest My Case
Seen from the window of a minibus, heading out of Diyarbakir on a day trip to the Neolithic site of Çayönü. As was this roundabout monument, which I must admit puts the twelve foot high gopher in Regina’s Wascana Park to shame. In fact, I think it even beats…
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…
Jo Fletcher Books welcomes Seoul Survivors
I’m beyond thrilled to announce that, fifteen years after I began writing it, my first novel Seoul Survivors, has been bought by Jo Fletcher Books, a Quercus imprint specialising in SF and Fantasy. The contract is a two-book deal that will see Seoul Survivors published in Feb 2013, and my second novel published twelve months later. I couldn’t have found…
Foyle Unfurling …
Welcome, curious reader, to my new website. Though I don’t have an old website so, properly speaking, this is my debut own-URL e-emporium. Here I’ve gathered a record of my work over the last twenty years, from my bouffon opera Hush to my recent verse drama ‘The Strange Wife’. You can read some of my poems, check out the synopsis…