Jason Goodwin
Jason Goodwin is a writer and historian who’s travelled all over the world – searching for inspiration… and tea. He’s written award-winning fiction and non-fiction and fell in love with Istanbul whilst studying Byzantine History at Cambridge. He’s also a passionate food-lover – food has had a considerable influence on his writing – and will be stirring up an Ottoman feast in his cauldron at Port Eliot this year.
After the success of A Time For Tea: Travels in China and India in Search of Tea (1980/1990), Jason made a six-month pilgrimage across eastern Europe to reach Istanbul for the first time, a journey recounted in On Foot to the Golden Horn (1993), which won the John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize in 1993.
It is the story of his walk with two friends – one of whom, Kate, is now his wife – through some of the world’s most beautiful places and of their encounters with a varied and vivid cast of characters.
His next book was Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire (1998) praised by Jan Morris as “a high-octane work of art”. After these travel books, Jason moved on to writing his series of novels featuring Yashim, the Turkish eunuch detective. The first, The Januissary Tree (2006), was nominated for the Macavity Award for Best Novel (2007) and was Winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel (2007). He followed this with The Snake Stone (2007) and The Bellini Card (2008). His next novel, starring Yashim, An Evil Eye is due for publication in 2011.
www.jasongoodwin.net
Jason’s extensive blog
Links:
- Find out below what hooked Jason into the Byzantium world and how the character of Yashim came about.
- How Jason’s family fuelled his love of cookery
