Fire and Ice. Can they ever mix?

A new Regency tales adventure.

             Set in Constantinople in 1811, SCANDALOUS LADY   is the story of a top ranking, ice-cold diplomat who encounters a fiery, rebellious artist  and thereafter, nothing goes to plan - for either of them!

Published by Endeavour Press               

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Experience the city together with Olivia as she discovers the exotic mix of past and present, east and west in Constantinople, the " city of the world's desire ". 

                                                             

                                     Dusk on the Golden Horn, 1845 - Ivan Aivazovsky

The Ciragan Palace, summer residence of the Sultan and his court. 

A narghile, a water pipe. In the coffeehouse she visits, Olivia takes only one puff but Lady Hester Stanhope is constantly smoking hers.

Turkish Café -Picture by Amadeo Preziosi

The bewildering variety of food   [picture by TooIstanbul]


 
    








                             The splendid goods such as carpets

        and jewellery

     

                                                           Airy carriages

                               
                                                            picture by Giovanni Brindisi, 1845

                            and magnificent horses

                                 

       

                                                  

An Eighteenth Century Turkish coffeehouse

 The first coffeehouse ever was opened in 1554 during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent in the Tahtakale district of Istanbul, a vibrant commercial centre even today. The first people to attend this first coffeehouse were people pursuing the mundane pleasures of idly enjoying the moment (there is a specific word for this in Turkish called ‘keyif'), as well as the educated class of society. Some would come to read in the coffeehouse, others would play backgammon or chess, some would engage in conversations on art and culture.
There were also a number of coffeehouses with decorative pools or fountains during the Ottoman period, as the Ottomans believed in the soothing power of watching water. The coffeehouses were subsidized by the local rich people.

The introduction of tobacco increased these places' popularity tremendously. The powdered tobacco [called 'shisha' ] is smoked through a hookah [narghile]. 
[Picture of narghile courtesy of Ozledim.NET]



Canaries were considered ‘good luck' for Janissary coffeehouses. In big coffeehouses, there would be as many as thirty to forty birdcages.







[All part of my research for 'Scandalous Lady', set in 1811 ]