Tag: art

  • Ripples on the Nile

    Ripples on the Nile

    I wasn’t following in the footsteps of Herodotus, at least, not on purpose, but somehow our paths did keep crossing, it was getting awkward. You know how it is when you have been stalking someone and then, suddenly, you come face to face with them. It’s been about two and half thousand years since the…

  • In Search of a Smile

    In Search of a Smile

    I was in the partial state of not knowing if I was awake or still dreaming; it had been another fitful uncomfortable night, mostly involving a donkey braying and the snores and snorting of Ibrahim, or, to be fair, that could also have been the donkey, either way, I was now fully aware that someone…

  • At a Loss in the Land of Nimrod

    At a Loss in the Land of Nimrod

    The prostitute fidgeted uncomfortably beside me, her knee brushing mine, a glass of tea, and a cigarette in the same hand. The sound of the police radio a constant crackle of an unintelligible code, the chaotic room bathed in neon blue as another squad car passed the tiny window. I took another deep breath and…

  • The Killing Fields

    The Killing Fields

    Stepping out of the minibus I staggered trying to stamp my feet on the side of the road, exhaust fumes and dust swirled as the bus left me, the four or was it five hours scrunched up at the back had cut the blood supply to my legs and now I was  stumbling like an…

  • Cyanotypes & The Graves of Poets

    Cyanotypes & The Graves of Poets

    Standing in the cold lifeless air of Westminster Abbey, surrounded by marble morbidity, the good and great and privileged interred at every turn, monarchs at the head of the table and poets consigned to a dim corner, and there, amid the flag stones of the nave lie the mortal remains of Charles Darwin, a three…

  • My Short Lived Career Smuggling Art

    My Short Lived Career Smuggling Art

    I’d been avoiding Ahmed all week; he needed to speak to me. I didn’t need to speak to him. If the shop was busy and he had customers I would be able to slip past without him seeing me, I hurried my pace; I risked a glance into the shop and couldn’t see him, then…

  • Welcome to Vulture Town

    Welcome to Vulture Town

    It’s the land of Orpheus and serpents and dancing trees, and where the landscape has been carved by dragons

  • Syrian Literary List

    Syrian Literary List

    14 Books to help understand more about Syria, its war and much more.

  • The Rubbish Collectors of Istanbul

    The Rubbish Collectors of Istanbul

    Faceless men and women, struggling up rain soaked cobbled hills clogged with traffic. Faces windswept and facing the floor. Ignored and cursed in equal measure. These wretched images as iconic in Istanbul as the minarets and monuments, stealthy tourists will often try and snap them as they haul a burlap load past shops with shelves…