After over thirty years as a municipal bean-counter slowly ascending a career ladder to middle management, middle income and a middling suburban terrace, Jack Scott decided to chuck in the towel, flog off the family silver and pitch his tent in a foreign field with his civil partner, Liam. They parachuted into paradise with their eyes firmly shut. When the blindfolds were removed, they found themselves peering into a bear pit of neo-colonial pretensions – all airs and no graces. Nothing could prepare them for what was to come – heat exhaustion, biblical floods, Byzantine red tape, casual censorship, power cuts, devil bugs, fetid plumbing, suicidal drivers, dirty politics, randy waiters, awe-inspiring sunsets, benevolence, generosity and approval. Eventually, they found diamonds in the rough and roses among the scrub.
Perking the Pansies and Turkey Street are the perfect accompaniment to a large glass of chilled white on a lazy day around a sun-kissed pool. Let Jack take you on his bitter-sweet journey of tragedy and comedy, an accidental tale of laughter and tears that changed him forever.
As a former expat, I imagined it would not be easy to take up residency in Turkey with its complex cultural, social and political forces. Not to mention the challenge of being a gay couple, ‘infidels’ in a country where you would expect to encounter a mix of tolerance. Jack Scott absolutely delivered on my expectations and I learned that acceptance and descent sometimes come from unexpected quarters … As the reader, I was transported in my mind to Turkey Street’s ‘now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t’ pavements and placed in scenes of intimate proportions. This included high-octane arguments, between his close-by neighbours, and ‘something to challenge the gag reflex’ - his landlady’s tripe soup. Jack’s observing of the expat community is telling. To help us understand how they operate and clan together (or not) he cleverly coins a number of energetic expressions by which to identify them. Fondness and disdain intermingle, with each vivid character and hilarious troupe. What I enjoyed most though, was the personal story of the relationship between our starring couple; Jack and Liam. Their affection for each other shines through in the dialogue; Liam to Jack, ‘Don’t raise your eyebrows at me dwarfy’. Meanwhile, Jack encourages Liam to face his nemesis - an enormous grouper – while dining out, ‘Calm down, Liam, it’s a fish, not a nuclear warhead’. I appreciated that Jack Scott’s tale of Turkey life feels real and balanced. He shows both the cultural immersion and the less attractive reality. For example, the ‘pot bellied Brits wobbled along the prom … adding a little Croydon to my panorama’ and the touching story of a couple separated in the counter-revolution at twenty-three. With the wife heavily pregnant and her husband exiled for eighteen months to a remote village. We learn how their Bodrum experience, a vivid chapter in the couple’s life, is impacted by the pull of loved ones back home and plans are sometimes interrupted. This is all part of the expat lifestyle, which inevitably has to be faced up to. As Jack puts it, ‘Some people are stalked by happenstance. Others have to grab fate by the throat.’ If you appreciate Jack Scott’s irreverant blog, which certainly ruffled a few feathers in Turkey, you’ll love reading more of his satire around the boy’s Ottoman adventure. I recommend Turkey Street to you, ‘bawdy boat trips’ and all. About Laura J Stephens
Springtime Books are proud to announce that all our 2015 releases made it onto the Displaced Nation Best Non-Fiction List for 2015. That's quite some achievement.
Jack Scott is giving away a copy of Turkey Street, Jack and Liam move to Bodrum, to one lucky winner on Goodreads. The competition is open to anyone from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. But hurry, the competition ends on 14th February 2015.
Goodreads Book GiveawayEnter GiveawayJane Dean, Editor-in-Chief at both Summertime Publishing and Springtime Books, continues her series on book editing.
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