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Turkey: Surviving the Expats
In 2009, Jack Scott and his civil partner, Liam, sold off the family silver and jumped the good ship Blighty for Muslim Turkey. They parachuted into paradise with eyes firmly shut and hoped for the best. When the blindfolds were removed what they saw wasn’t pretty. They found themselves peering over the rim of a Byzantine bear pit. Bitching and pretension ruled the emigrey roost. The white-washed ghettoes were populated by neo-colonial bar-room bores who hated the country they’d come from and hated the country they’d come to and were obsessed with property prices, pork products and street dogs. Expat life was village life where your business was everyone’s business. For Liam, it was the barren badlands of the lost and lonely. For Jack it was the last stand of the charmless Raj - 'Tenko' without the guards, the guns and the barbed wire. It took them a while to find their feet and separate the wheat from the chavs but, determined to stay the course, eventually they found diamonds in the rough and roses among the weeds.
Welcome to Part Two of the mini-series which includes previously unpublished material together with Jack’s personal recommendations of the must-sees that Turkey has to offer to visitors and residents alike.
Welcome to Part Two of the mini-series which includes previously unpublished material together with Jack’s personal recommendations of the must-sees that Turkey has to offer to visitors and residents alike.
- GenresTravel
ebook
First published January 18, 2013
98 people want to read
About the author
Jack Scott
6 books64 followersJack Scott was born on a British army base in Canterbury, England in 1960 and spent part of his childhood in Malaysia as a ‘forces brat’. A fondness for men in uniforms quickly developed. At the age of eighteen and determined to dodge further education, Jack became a shop boy on Chelsea’s trendy King’s Road: ‘Days on the tills and nights on the tiles were the best probation for a young gay man about town.’ After two carefree years, Jack swapped sales for security and got a sensible job in local government with a pension attached. By his late forties, passionately dissatisfied with suburban life and middle management, he and his husband Liam abandoned the sanctuary of liberal London for an uncertain future in Turkey.
In 2010, Jack started an irreverent narrative about his new life and Perking the Pansies, the blog quickly became one of the most popular English language blogs in Turkey. Within a year, Jack had been featured in the Turkish National Press, had published numerous essays and articles in expat and travel magazines and contributed to the Huffington Post Union of Bloggers. As the blog developed a head of steam, a growing worldwide audience clamoured for a book. Jack duly obliged and his hilarious (well, he thinks so) memoir, Perking the Pansies hit the streets at Christmas 2011.
The book became a critically acclaimed, award winning best seller and its success has opened out a whole new career for Jack as an author. Jack and Liam decided to end their Anatolian adventure and paddle back to Britain on the evening tide. They currently live in Norwich, a surprising cathedral city in eastern England.
Jack's often nostalgic for his encounters with the hopeless, the hapless and, yes, the happy go lucky. They gave him an unexpected tale to tell. Act Two, Turkey Street Jack and Liam move to Bodrum, was published in May 2015 by Springtime Books
In 2010, Jack started an irreverent narrative about his new life and Perking the Pansies, the blog quickly became one of the most popular English language blogs in Turkey. Within a year, Jack had been featured in the Turkish National Press, had published numerous essays and articles in expat and travel magazines and contributed to the Huffington Post Union of Bloggers. As the blog developed a head of steam, a growing worldwide audience clamoured for a book. Jack duly obliged and his hilarious (well, he thinks so) memoir, Perking the Pansies hit the streets at Christmas 2011.
The book became a critically acclaimed, award winning best seller and its success has opened out a whole new career for Jack as an author. Jack and Liam decided to end their Anatolian adventure and paddle back to Britain on the evening tide. They currently live in Norwich, a surprising cathedral city in eastern England.
Jack's often nostalgic for his encounters with the hopeless, the hapless and, yes, the happy go lucky. They gave him an unexpected tale to tell. Act Two, Turkey Street Jack and Liam move to Bodrum, was published in May 2015 by Springtime Books
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 2, 2013
Bite size observations and insights, on a Turkish life well lived.
This aptly named book should be a lesson to all expats who try to integrate themselves in the local community head first without testing the waters first. Turkey, Surviving the Expats centres around Jack and Liam's 6 month forary into the underbelly of expat endevours. Which was very quickly followed by another 6 months of trying to extricate themselves from that very same clique.
If you've often yearned for an expat existence in warmer climes, and wondered whether the reality could match you day dreams - this book is a bit of wake up call delivered with alarm bells ringing.
It's a collection of pithy, amusing observations, which make you smile or cringe with recognition. It's also peppered with meaningful an unapologetic social commentary, and just enough personal insights to make you instantly warm to this foreign adventure.
This is an excellent book for a beach read. It'll keep you engaged, and pique your interest. It's like a box of chocolates - it's a little bit naughty, and you know you shouldn't have any more, but as soon as you put the lid on it, you want to sneak another chapter. Definitely a book I couldn't put down.
This aptly named book should be a lesson to all expats who try to integrate themselves in the local community head first without testing the waters first. Turkey, Surviving the Expats centres around Jack and Liam's 6 month forary into the underbelly of expat endevours. Which was very quickly followed by another 6 months of trying to extricate themselves from that very same clique.
If you've often yearned for an expat existence in warmer climes, and wondered whether the reality could match you day dreams - this book is a bit of wake up call delivered with alarm bells ringing.
It's a collection of pithy, amusing observations, which make you smile or cringe with recognition. It's also peppered with meaningful an unapologetic social commentary, and just enough personal insights to make you instantly warm to this foreign adventure.
This is an excellent book for a beach read. It'll keep you engaged, and pique your interest. It's like a box of chocolates - it's a little bit naughty, and you know you shouldn't have any more, but as soon as you put the lid on it, you want to sneak another chapter. Definitely a book I couldn't put down.
September 11, 2013
Jack takes a tongue in cheek, don't take anything too seriously look at the Expat community he encountered in Turkey over a period of about 20 months. This is a really entertaining, fun read written with Jack's inimitable caustic wit in bite sized chunks. His observations and descriptions of the characters give them life on the page. Quote "Nancy is the undisputed chief concubine, his Nell Gwyn to her improbable Charles the Second." Because this book is effectively a diary I find it easy to pick up and put down at any point. Jack doesn't tax the brain; he just entertains. A laugh a minute.MASK
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews