The Palace Lady's Summerhouse: And other inside stories from a vanishing Turkey

303 pp, color figures, hb, in English.

From Istanbul’s palatial old embassies to its glorious Bosphorus summerhouses, from Ottoman Paris to Ankara’s Art Deco, from rainforest mansions to a mad mosque in the mountains… a diplomat’s wife reveals surprising secret histories. This book brings together essays by Patricia Daunt written for Cornucopia Magazine over the past twenty-five years. It concludes with her latest article, on the magnificent ruins of Aphrodisias, newly listed as a World Heritage Site, but long one of her greatest loves.

‘This volume is a rare treasure… flair and know-how dazzlingly combined with knowledge and wit. From it you will learn of a semi-secret Turkey. Patricia Daunt is not only a passionate Turcophile and a most impressive scholar; she is also a former ambassadress, who over many years has been able to penetrate far more deeply than most of us into the life and customs of what we must, alas, describe as a vanishing Turkey.’ (From the foreword by John Julius Norwich)

‘…the Palace Lady’s Summerhouse is much more than a beautifully illustrated book: it’s about the people who lived — and live — in these buildings, and a portrait of the vanishing worlds they represent.’ (Owen Matthews, The Spectator, Dec 2, 2017)