From Istanbul's palatial old embassies to its glorious Bosphorus summerhouses, from Ottoman Paris to Ankara's Art Deco, from rainforest mansions to a mad mosque in the mountains... a diplomat's wife reveals their secret histories. This book brings together essays by Patricia Daunt written over the past 25 years for Cornucopia Magazine. It concludes with her latest article, on the magnificent ruins of Aphrodisias, newly listed as a World Heritage Site but long one of her greatest loves. The images are by internationally renowned photographers, including Fritz von der Schulenburg, Simon Upton, Cemal Emden and Jean-Marie del Moral. Foreword by John Julius Norwich.