Just Finished Reading: Istanbul – Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk (FP: 2005) [333pp] 

On reading this interesting memoir by the Nobel Prize winning Turkish author I was pleased that I had read a history of modern Istanbul beforehand. This is, however, no criticism of this work. The previous history of the city gave me a good – indeed excellent – foundation to understand the deeper context that pervaded this work. The author was born in Istanbul in 1952 (around the time that the previous history book ended its narrative) so grew up in a city in the midst of change – from ancient to modern, from East to West, from religious to secular. It's not surprising that such a transition moulded and transformed the other into someone, in effect, living between two worlds and being nostalgic for a world that had been ‘lost’ (and was indeed crumbling or actively burning down around him) whilst struggling to exist in an officially sanctioned modern western looking world that was unfamiliar to him. It's odd how the official focus was very much directed at the west as an icon to look up to and emulate whilst the countries, and cities, rich Ottoman history was officially ignored, sidelined and sometimes actually denigrated. I think that would confuse anyone – never mind a sensitive soul searching for himself whilst walking the streets of an ancient city full of a rich culture from across an extensive fallen empire. I wasn’t at all surprised that his first impulse was to paint in order to reflect what he saw every day on his youthful wanderings. 

This was a memoir of painful honesty. The common theme throughout was the deep melancholy he felt growing up in a place that had not only seemed to forget its own history but had effectively been ordered to do so. Looking back was frowned upon. Wanting to look back, needing to look back to make sense of things was questionable and quite possibly disloyal. The only way to face was forwards and westwards. The authors quest for who he was and where he fitted into the grand scheme of things – especially within a Turkish historical context – was complicated (to say the least!) by his families emotional and financial slow-motion collapse throughout his young life. Despite being born into a moderately wealthy family (from money accumulated by his grandfather) his father continued to make bad financial decisions throughout his life bleeding money and slowly impoverishing the extended family. On top of this the authors father was often away from home and all too often with women other than his wife. This added complication was woven into the narrative almost as a microcosm of the city itself as it progressively crumbled, collapsed and was neglected into picturesque rubble. 

Apart from the often-beautiful writing (you can certainly tell why he won the Nobel Prize for Literature) the thing that I really liked about this book was the many photographs scattered throughout the text. Many of them were good and quite a few were simply excellent – sometimes breathtakingly so. I was MOST impressed. This book gives a great feel to the city of the author’s birth. He makes it seem exotic and familiar, dilapidated and picturesque, crowded and abandoned, timeless and ephemeral. I found it quite haunting. I look forward to reading more by this author and will likely be returning to him later in the year. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in the liminal spaces – in more ways than one - between the west and the exotic east. 

Translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely

A *very* valid question and ONE reason why I have trust issues............ 

Just Finished Reading: Midnight at the Pera Palace – The Birth of Modern Istanbul by Charles King (FP: 2014) [378pp] 

It must have been quite THE shock. Not only was the Ottoman empire defeated in the Great War but was about to be dismembered by the victorious western powers. The only fly in the ointment (or possibly yoghurt) was the young Turk – Mustafa Kemal (later known as Ataturk). Opposed to both the crumbling and corrupt Ottoman dynasty AND the Allies now occupying Istanbul he had his own ideas for the future of Turkey, but first he would have to save his new nation state. The ancient enemy, Greece, had already begun its advance into Turkish territory and needed to be stopped. After much bloody fighting it was and Kemal could now negotiate from a position of strength. Both unwilling and unable to fight another war so soon after the Great one, the Allies and Turks agreed on boundaries and the future ethnic make-up of both previously Ottoman occupied territory Turkey was giving up as well as territory it was taking full control of prompting a massive compulsory move of peoples. Istanbul was dead centre of the ensuing chaos, refugee crisis, modernisation decrees, and the transformation of a deceased Muslim empire into a secular western facing nation state.  

My usual focus of attention, and the zones I know most about, are Europe (including the UK) and North America. My ‘knowledge’ of other areas particularly Africa and South America is, at best, scant. Likewise, my ‘knowledge’ of Asia beyond the Ancient World is hazy to say the least so it was good to look at the birth of a modern near-Asian nation entering the modern world from the end of WW1 to the beginning of the Cold War. Interestingly, the author chose a unique lens through which to view the rapid and radical change which occurred in Turkey/Istanbul during this period – a hotel called the Pera Palace. Looking at the people who stayed there – including (briefly) people like Leon Trotsky! - together with diplomats, spies, journalists, authors and many others. Tales from that exotic city reminded me of Second World War Lisbon (FULL of spies), Cold War Berlin (FULL of Spies) and Hollywood Casablanca (FULL of refugees). I hadn’t realised just how many Russians ended up there after the 1917 Revolution and Civil War that followed nor how important a node it was for the post-WW2 transit of European Jews to the Holy Land. Fascinating stuff! 

As you can tell I learnt a LOT from this excellent history and look forward to reading anything else the author has produced – his works on Odessa and The Black Sea definitely interest me. Definitely recommended to anyone interested in the regions RICH history. 

[Odd side note: Midnight at the Pera Palace is a Turkish time travel historical drama television series directed by Emre Şahin starring Hazal Kaya, Tansu Biçer, Selahattin Paşalı and James Chalmers. The show was released on Netflix on March 3, 2022, with the first season consisting of 8 episodes. Centered around the real-life Pera Palace Hotel, the series was inspired by the 2014 historical non-fiction book Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul by Charles King. The series was renewed for a second season, which aired on September 12, 2024. How WEIRD is THAT?] 

Happy Birthday: Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (née Sutherland; 13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935) was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile.

The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim, Lucy Duff-Gordon was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. In addition to originating the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, and promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie.

Opening branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Chicago, New York City, and Paris, her business became the first global couture brand, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities. Duff-Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and as the losing party in the precedent-setting 1917 contract law case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote the opinion for New York's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, upholding a contract between Duff-Gordon and her advertising agent that assigned the agent the sole right to market her name. It was the first case of its kind; clothes were labelled and sold at a lowered cost in a cheaper market under an expensive "brand name".

The Titanic episode is one of the most prominent aspects of Lucy Duff-Gordon's life, thanks partly to motion pictures. The films, however, portrayed her without great attention to accuracy. She has been portrayed by Harriette Johns in A Night to Remember (1958); by Rosalind Ayres in James Cameron's epic Titanic (1997); and by Sylvestra Le Touzel in the British miniseries Titanic (2012). She is also a key character in the novel The Dressmaker, by Kate Alcott, which portrays both the sinking of the Titanic and the negative publicity that followed for the Duff-Gordons.

Lucy Duff-Gordon had another close call three years after surviving the Titanic, when she booked passage aboard the final voyage of the RMS Lusitania. It was reported in the press that she cancelled her trip due to illness. The Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo on 7 May 1915.