'Without question one of the best books ever written by an Englishman on the Turks' William Dalrymple
Philip Mansel's highly acclaimed history of Constantinople (formerly known as Byzantium) absorbingly charts the interaction between the vibrantly cosmopolitan capital - the city of the world's desire - and its ruling family.
In 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror entered Constantinople on a white horse, beginning an Ottoman love affair with the city that lasted until 1924, when the last Caliph hurriedly left on the Orient Express. For almost five centuries Constantinople, with its enormous racial and cultural diversity, was the centre of the dramatic and often depraved story of an extraordinary dynasty.
'Plenty of intrigue and bloodshed. The squeamish should skip the city's solution to the stray dog problem... and focus on the convincingly documented and colourful ebb and flow of economy and society'
