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Fifth news item

"You've Got to Sleep With Your Mum and Dad" is now available on Amazon. Childhood angst, marathon swimming, international exploitation and the threat of impending pinniped intimacy. on 2014-08-13
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Fourth news item

Have a look at my page on Amazon. Still plenty of summer left for challenging literature. on 2014-08-13
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Third news item

Check out my Amazon Kindle page. 'The Baby Who Killed People for Money' is now available. An utterly charming child with a unique and lucrative skill. A father with no defence against his daughter's impulses. Would you take your little girl around Europe for a spot of murder tourism? Of course you would. on 2014-06-30
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Second news item

My story on the Tate gallery website on 2013-11-11
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First news item

A Thousand Natural Shocks An anthology that includes two of my stories. Available now at Amazon. on 2013-11-11
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March 2024
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metochion-sinai1

This is no longer anything in particular except a refuge for squatters with an eye for 17th century architecture (41.033284, 28.947541). It was where the envoy from St Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai from 1686 until 1967. At this point, it was abandoned and became the only example of a Feneriot mansion that could readily be seen by visitors. There is a nice picture of it from 1982 here. I imagine that it will be restored as a trendy gallery or café at any moment. There is a nice summer café in the grounds on the Golden Horn side which, last time I was there was doing a bad job of keeping the Syrian refugees out.

metochion-sinai-residence

There is still an intact 19th century basilica attached, the Church of St John the Baptist, built in 1833 but presumably built on the site of something much older.

metochion-sina-and-church

This may be the finest remaining example of one of the classic Feneriot houses. These were the residences of Greeks and other foreigners who made fortunes from acting as intermediaries between late Ottoman dignitaries the merchants whose languages they would not lower themselves to use. These are some pictures from the early twentieth century of one of these houses (from Diez and Gluck, 1920)

feneriot-houses

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