Escape from Mary’s room

Sunday 18 September 2025 Ankara, Türkiye I don’t know how it happened — well, I know the chronology of events — but somehow someone decided I would be the ideal person to teach private high school Turkish students English as a second language. There are days I am not so sure how sober the decision-makers… Continue reading Escape from Mary’s room

Tenafly

Ankara, Türkiye – Sunday 21 September 2025 Above: Ankara, Türkiye It has been a long stretch of time since my last blogpost – half a year, to be precise. I have not been hospitalized, held hostage or wandered about the wilderness. From the summer of 2024 to the summer of 2025, it has been a… Continue reading Tenafly

Bare trees

Monday 11 November 2024 Eskişehir, Türkiye Today is a day commemorated around the world, but in very different ways in very different countries. In the extraordinary land of Bhutan, the last great Himalayan kingdom, a realm shrouded in mystery and magic, where a traditional Buddhist culture carefully embraces global developments, it is the birthday of… Continue reading Bare trees

Land Day

Eskişehir, Turkey Saturday 30 March 2024 “Started reading Goebbels’ diary. Interested to note that he, too, was a writer manqué who had begun by producing a bad novel and a play which no theatre would put on. Above: German Chancellor Joseph Goebbels (1897 – 1945) Most men of action seem to be writers manqué, and… Continue reading Land Day

A black day

Eskişehir, Türkiye Friday 28 March 2024 Above: Crucifixion of rebel leaders by the Carthaginians in 238 BC, Victor-Armand Poirson, 1890 Standing in the dock at SouthamptonTrying to get to Holland or FranceThe man in the Mac said, “You’ve got to go back“You know, they didn’t even give us a chance Above: Southampton Docks, England (CHORUS) Christ,… Continue reading A black day

Legacy

Eskişehir, Türkiye Thursday 28 March 2024 “Arnold Bennett died last night, which leaves me sadder than I should have supposed. A loveable genuine man, somehow a little awkward in life, well meaning, ponderous, kindly, coarse, knowing he was coarse, dimly floundering and feeling for something else, glutted with success, wounded in his feelings and thick-lipped,… Continue reading Legacy

Purple reign

Eskişehir, Türkiye Tuesday 26 March 2024 “On to “the Daily Express” office about books. I see an intolerable man who treats me and literature as if they were dirt. I am so depressed by the squalor of this interview that I return home in a nerve storm. To make it worse, I am sent out… Continue reading Purple reign

In the beginning was the Word

Eskişehir, Türkiye Monday 25 August 2024 Tolkien fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, especially of the Middle Earth legendarium, which includes The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. The concept of Tolkien fandom as a specific type of fan subculture sprang up in the United States in… Continue reading In the beginning was the Word