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Guide to Turkey for History Travellers Reviewed By Lois Henderson of Bookpleasures.com
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Lois C. Henderson

Reviewer Lois C. Henderson: Lois is a freelance academic editor and back-of-book indexer, who spends most of her free time compiling word search puzzles for tourism and educative purposes. Her puzzles are available HERE and HERE Her Twitter account (@LoisCHenderson) mainly focusses on the toponymy of British place names. Please feel welcome to contact her with any feedback at LoisCourtenayHenderson@gmail.com.





 
By Lois C. Henderson
Published on September 17, 2012
 

Author: Bob Fowke

Publisher: YouCaxton Publishers

ASIN: B008KNMTT4



Author: Bob Fowke

Publisher: YouCaxton Publishers

ASIN: B008KNMTT4


Bob Fowke’s latest ebook in his series of travel guides come historical overviews and introductions to countries that are all well travelled by himself, Guide to Turkey for History Travellers, is as entertaining and informative as his other guides to Spain, France and Greece continue to be. As with his previous works in this field, his urbane wit and lively cast of mind have one gasping at the unusual one moment to laughing out loud the next, so, whatever you do, do not expect this to be a quiet ride.

Fowke’s background, as both an award-winning author and an extremely popular illustrator, has placed him in a position to travel internationally, allowing him to develop close firsthand knowledge of the countries that he explores across both time and space. His lack of pretentiousness and essential modesty, as well as his versatility as a master of both the word and the visual media, are core to his writing. His consistent striving to make what some others might find esoteric or unnecessarily convoluted accessible and tempting draw his audience in.

There is an essential air of trustworthiness about Fowke’s writing―we know that we are not about to be taken in by his glamorisation of the unsavory, and that what he omits for sake of brevity is not as key and core to our coming to the understanding of the lands and cultures that he explores as are the facts that he does include. Selective as his guides might be, we definitely do not feel cheated of any of the rich tapestry that go to make up the composite picture of those that he describes. Rather, he tempts us to want to find out more, and in no way jades our palate for more extensive texts than his.

However, his guides have a definite role to play in opening up the Mediterranean lands that he so joyfully explores. And always he is aware of how best to contextualize what he has to say. In Guide to Turkey for History Travellers, Fowke takes us from a time when “rebel princes and deposed emperors were first blinded and then imprisoned as a humane alternative to death, many centuries ago before the Turks arrived” right up to the 1980s, when “[p]olitical parties were dissolved and there were mass arrests of extremists and supposed extremists.” While no one can say that Turkish history has been smooth sailing, the way in which Fowke introduces the subject is mellifluously and masterfully related by Fowke. One revels in the simplicity of his sentence structure and the consummate ease with which he can recount a tale well worth telling.

The saliency and relevance of all that Fowke has to say opens up foreign vistas before our eyes, so that, even if we never step far beyond our own front door, we can appreciate the opening up of distant shores that he offers us. In addition, the numerous line drawings and maps aid the reader in understanding where and how historical events of note took place. Whether you are (or intend to) travel to Turkey, or whether you are keen on an historical exploration of the country and its rich culture, you should find that Fowke satisfies your need for information even beyond the straightforward narrative text. For the former, he provides numerous contextualised guide tips interspersed amidst the main thrust of his text, and for the latter he not only includes a number of anecdotes in the form of travellers’ tales, but he also rounds off the work with timelines of the Byzantine emperors, the Seljuk Sultans of Anatolia, the Ottoman Sultans and important dates, stetching from Çatal Höyük in c. 8500-7500 to when Turkey became a republic in 1923.

A rich and intriguing work, as well as being delightfully witty and humane, Guide to Turkey for History Travellers is definitely well worth obtaining, no matter your intended destination in life.

Follow Here To Purchase Guide to Turkey for History Travellers (Guides for History Travellers)