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Issue 16, 1998

Beguiling Büyükada

£50.00 / $63.32 / €60.17
($/€ approx)


Luxuriate in an old-fashioned idyll: Büyükada, largest of the Princes Islands. Skulduggery among the cedars: precious sternbergias smuggled from the Toros mountains. We learn of 16th-century Ottoman spin doctors; the lighthouse-keepers of Cape Chelidonia, the dragoman’s school in Ortaköy and a feast of figs

Highlights

  • Postcards from Paradise

    In a 36-page tribute, Cornucopia offers five contrasting views of the largest of the Princes Islands, Büyükada. Distant enough for monastic retreat and political exile, close enough for the summer migration of Istanbul’s bourgeoisie, this beguiling island has a tranquil past but a perilous future. Articles by Andrew Finkel, John Carswell and Elizabeth Meath Baker and Angela Berzeg

  • Skulduggery among the cedars

    The story of one of Turkey’s rarest bulbs could be taken from the pages of a thriller. Andrew Byfield exposes the bulb smugglers’ dastardly deeds.


  • A Feast of Figs

    As the fig grows ever sweeter, a honey-drop appears at the eye, and the seeds develop, adding a nutty flavour and a crunch to the glutinous texture.
    More cookery features


  • Fresh as a Fresco

    Behind the gently fading façade of the Meziki Konağı, one of the few stone palazzos on Buyükada, is a frescoed interior in mint condition


  • The Dragoboys of Ortaköy

    In the late 19th century, in the face of an increasingly corrupt consular service in the Near East, ambitious plans were laid in Istanbul to train an elite corps of young British diplomats



  • Keepers of the Light

    The lighthouse at Cape Chelidonia, the southernmost point of the Bay of Antalya, stands sentinel over what is now one of the Mediterranean’s most peaceful stretches of coastline. Three generations of one family have kept the light shining here since it was first lit in 1938. Now, the in the face of satellite technology, darkness is threatening to return. Kate Clow reports.

  • Ambassador Extraordinary

    Zeki Kuneralp was raised far from home on a farm in the Swiss Alps. He returned to become one of the century’s most venerated diplomats. David Barchard pays tribute.

    Even in later years, in spite of immense personal tragedy, he remained a fount of wisdom and good advice to a host of diplomats, ministers and journalists.


Inside the issue

Postcards from Paradise: A Grand Tour of Büyükada

  1. In a 36-page tribute, Cornucopia offers five contrasting views of the largest of the Princes Islands
  2. Is the Honeymoon Over?
    A visitor to Büyükada since the sixties,
    Andrew Finkel laments the erosion of a bourgeois idyll
    [extract available online]
  3. The Whistlestop Tourist
    John Carswell delights in the island’s quirky architecture

Büyükada Houses

  1. Elizabeth Meath Baker and Angela Berzeg go exploring with photographer Simon Upton
  2. Sudies for a Still Life
    The Dikmen house
  3. Smart Nouveau
    The Farra house
  4. Fresh as a Fresco
    The Meziki house

People

  1. Ambassador Extraordinary
    Zeki Kuneralp, by David Barchard
  2. Theatre of War
    Triumphal processions, by Christine Thomson
  3. Keepers of the Light
    The lighthouse at Cape Celidonia, by Kate Clow
  4. The Dragoboys of Ortaköy
    Young 19th-century British diplomats,
    by David Moray
    [available online]
  5. Foreign Magnet
    Christopher Urban talks to James Dorsey

The Countryside

  1. Skulduggery Among the Cedars
    Protecting Turkey's rarest bulbs,
    by Andrew Byfield
    [extract available online]

Cookery

  1. A Feast of Figs
    by Berrin Torolsan

Regulars

  1. Connoisseur
    A viewer's guide to salerooms and galleries,
    by Philippa Scott
  2. Exhibitions
    The Art of Mungo McCosh, by Brian Sewell.
    Words of Art: The Sakıp Sabancı Collection of Calligraphy, by Tim Stanley
  3. Issues of the Day
    Istanbul and Beyond, by Andrew Finkel
  4. Despatches
    From Istanbul, Marmaris, Baku, New York and Sydney
  5. Eating Out
    By Andrew Finkel in Istanbul
    and Christopher Ryan in London
  6. Wax Work
    Gülsen Bükülmez’s classical candles,
    by Elizabeth Meath Baker
  7. Counterpoint
    The Net Surfer's Guide to Turkey,
    by David Barchard.
    The Cornucopia Investment Challenge,
    by Andrew Finkel

Book Reviews

  1. Turning to Ash
    Selected Poems/ Seçme Şiirler, by John Ash.
    Reviewed by Maureen Freely
  2. Diary of a Revolution
    The Priest and the King: An Eye-Witness Account of the Iranian Revolution, by Desmond Harney.
    Reviewed by Antony Wynn
  3. Taking a Long Nap
    Konya Cappadocia Carpets From the 17th to the 19th Centuries, by Ayan Gülgönen.
    Reviewed by Philippa Scott
  4. Chartered territory
    Pirî Reis and his Charts, by Mine Esiner Özen.
    Reviewed by Tim Stanley
  5. Square One
    Istanbul: An Architectural Guide, by Christa Beck and Christiane Forsting.
    Reviewed by John Scott
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