The award-winning novelist and historian has not only visited Istanbul dozens of times to research his Ottoman mystery novels, but also spent six months walking to the city from Poland: a journey he describes in this issue. The long hike was “one that kindled my fascination with the Ottoman Empire, as we walked through a world touched by its lingering influence: a minaret in northern Hungary or a gulp of very strong black coffee, or the sight of gypsy women in glorious swirling colored skirts”.
