Roger Crowley
Taking on the Turk
The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe
By Andrew Wheatcroft
Bodley Head 338pp £20 order from our bookshop
Andrew Wheatcroft opens his book with an arresting image that takes the reader straight into the rich world of Ottoman ceremonial:
In the evening of 6 August 1682 the Sultan’s gardeners dug a narrow trench beside the Imperial Gate of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. At intervals they planted seven long crimson poles, each as thick as a man’s arm; the top section was elaborately carved and gilded, and from the golden globe at the apex hung a cascade of black and coloured horse tails.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'There can’t be many histories of London that have given room, for instance, to the Koreans of New Malden or the Bombay Emporium of Mayfair in the 1930s.'
Jerry White on @profpanayi's 'Migrant City'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/capital-gains-3
'How do those of us who have enough to eat account for hunger? We often imagine it’s about drought, famine, lack of rain, corruption and incompetence. We need to be much more imaginative.'
@moorehl reviews 'Hunger' by @martin_caparros.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/feed-the-world
You only have until Tuesday to make the most of our Mother's Day offer.
An annual subscription to Literary Review, full access to our online archive, and a free copy of 'Miss Austen', the bestselling novel by Gill Hornby, all for just £35.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/mother/