I was both delighted and nervous when the Adana Branch of the Turkish American Women’s Cultural Society Reading Group invited me to visit and discuss my story, ‘Scandalous Lady’.
Nervous because, for all my experience of Turkey, the story of Olivia and Selim Efendi, set in Constantinople in 1811, was under scrutiny by a large group of Turkish ladies.
Delighted because they gave me a warm welcome, they approved my descriptions of life in that period; and then…. as they always do, they provided a splendid feast to complete the afternoon.
The event is a cherished memory for me, both for the discussion of the novel
and for the kind hospitality of the ladies.