Following Miss Bell
Travels Around Turkey in the Footsteps of Gertrude Bell
Will be published approx. on 1. September 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
396 pages
978-1-912716-35-7 (ISBN)
Description
Travel around Turkey in the footsteps of the great British archaelogist Gertrude Bell.
In 1889 Gertrude Bell, the great British archaeologist, writer and explorer, arrived in Constantinople (Istanbul) on the first of many visits to what is now Turkey. Over the next twenty-five years, she would travel the length and breadth of the country, climbing mountains Hasan and Cudi, crossing the Dicle (Tigris) on a raft of inflated goatskins and taking the earliest photographs of remote corners of the country.
Veteran guidebook writer Pat Yale set out to retrace Bell's Turkish adventures as one British traveller following another. Her journey took her to the site on the Syrian border where she met Lawrence of Arabia, to forgotten monasteries with solitary occupants and to villages where the conversation of trilingual inhabitants recalled a more multicultural past. Along the way, she rubbed shoulders with adherents of faiths that barely survive in modern Turkey, with young men manning barricades in the troubled southeast and refugees struggling to make new lives, with settled nomads making a living from modern tourism and a myriad taxi drivers whose stories exemplify the Turkish dream.
Interwoven with each other, the tales of these two women's travels evoke a Turkey of then and now that is so much more complex than its modern tourist image suggests.
In 1889 Gertrude Bell, the great British archaeologist, writer and explorer, arrived in Constantinople (Istanbul) on the first of many visits to what is now Turkey. Over the next twenty-five years, she would travel the length and breadth of the country, climbing mountains Hasan and Cudi, crossing the Dicle (Tigris) on a raft of inflated goatskins and taking the earliest photographs of remote corners of the country.
Veteran guidebook writer Pat Yale set out to retrace Bell's Turkish adventures as one British traveller following another. Her journey took her to the site on the Syrian border where she met Lawrence of Arabia, to forgotten monasteries with solitary occupants and to villages where the conversation of trilingual inhabitants recalled a more multicultural past. Along the way, she rubbed shoulders with adherents of faiths that barely survive in modern Turkey, with young men manning barricades in the troubled southeast and refugees struggling to make new lives, with settled nomads making a living from modern tourism and a myriad taxi drivers whose stories exemplify the Turkish dream.
Interwoven with each other, the tales of these two women's travels evoke a Turkey of then and now that is so much more complex than its modern tourist image suggests.
Reviews / Votes
Pat Yales takes us on an epic adventure through time, space and the magical landscapes that bewitched a woman in the 1900s. Beautifully written, it entranced me uttlerly. -- Barbara Nadel * Author of the Inspector Ikmen series of crime novels * Yale's book is a fine guide... She is a close observer and a dogged detective, determined to work out exactly where Bell stayed or what route she took. She switches adroitly between the close-up lens and the wide angle, and addresses the troubles of contemporary Turkey with a light touch, even though the thud and crash of bombs are never far off.... I thoroughly enjoyed it. -- Sara Wheeler * The Spectator * This meticulously researched and beautifully written travelogue reminded me of William Dalrymple's 'In Xanadu' and 'From the Holy Mountain'... Yale not only brings her subject to life, she also gifts us a fond and informed portrait of Turkey, its amazing heritage and its people. -- Virginia MaxwellMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Hindhead, Surrey
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-912716-35-7 (9781912716357)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Pat Yale studied history at Cambridge University before going to work in the travel industry. She then became a guidebook writer specialising in Turkey, primarily for Lonely Planet. Her articles have appeard in The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Time Out Istanbul and many other publications. After 20 years in a cave-house in Cappadocia, she now lives in Istanbul.
Content
PREFACE 7
Gertrude's Spelling and Other Inconsistencies 12
The Turkish Language 12
PART ONE: Western Wanderings
1 The First East 13
2 The Topless Towers of Ilium 25
3 Shopping like a Native 31
4 The Mediterranean Race 40
5 Alone with History and the Birds 51
6 On the Tourist Trail 57
7 Ephesus Quite to Ourselves 66
8 Crossing the Meander 73
9 From Exiles to Oligarchs 86
10 In Brigand Country 93
11 Claudius the Chippendale 102
12 Moustaches and Marsyas 106
13 Into the Turkish Lake District 115
14 The Road Less Travelled 123
15 The Unlikely Romance of Konya 133
16 Backwater Byzantium 143
PART TWO: The Call of the East
17 Salvar with Strawberries 153
18 Cardamon Coffee and Aleppo Number Plates 165
19 The Room with Oxblood Walls 180
20 A God Beneath a Mulberry Tree 187
21 The Man in the Cummerbund 198
22 City of Prophets 210
23 The Sultan's Man in Viransehir 226
24 How Light Mesopotamia Became 231
25 The Twelve Wise Men 244
26 In Search of Noah's Ark 267
PART THREE: Homeward Bound
27 The Shadow of the Dam 281
28 The Zebra-Striped City 293
29 Copper Mines and Opium Poppies 306
30 The Devil versus the Kayserilis 320
31 The Funniest Mountaineering 329
32 Constantinople Swansong 346
Epilogue: A Lonesome Gallipoli Grave 366
Maps: Gertrude Bell's Main Journeys Across Turkey 371
Acknowledgements 376
Further Reading 378
Glossary 381
Index 384
Gertrude's Spelling and Other Inconsistencies 12
The Turkish Language 12
PART ONE: Western Wanderings
1 The First East 13
2 The Topless Towers of Ilium 25
3 Shopping like a Native 31
4 The Mediterranean Race 40
5 Alone with History and the Birds 51
6 On the Tourist Trail 57
7 Ephesus Quite to Ourselves 66
8 Crossing the Meander 73
9 From Exiles to Oligarchs 86
10 In Brigand Country 93
11 Claudius the Chippendale 102
12 Moustaches and Marsyas 106
13 Into the Turkish Lake District 115
14 The Road Less Travelled 123
15 The Unlikely Romance of Konya 133
16 Backwater Byzantium 143
PART TWO: The Call of the East
17 Salvar with Strawberries 153
18 Cardamon Coffee and Aleppo Number Plates 165
19 The Room with Oxblood Walls 180
20 A God Beneath a Mulberry Tree 187
21 The Man in the Cummerbund 198
22 City of Prophets 210
23 The Sultan's Man in Viransehir 226
24 How Light Mesopotamia Became 231
25 The Twelve Wise Men 244
26 In Search of Noah's Ark 267
PART THREE: Homeward Bound
27 The Shadow of the Dam 281
28 The Zebra-Striped City 293
29 Copper Mines and Opium Poppies 306
30 The Devil versus the Kayserilis 320
31 The Funniest Mountaineering 329
32 Constantinople Swansong 346
Epilogue: A Lonesome Gallipoli Grave 366
Maps: Gertrude Bell's Main Journeys Across Turkey 371
Acknowledgements 376
Further Reading 378
Glossary 381
Index 384