Cornucopia Blog > Obituaries

Robert G Ousterhout

A sad goodbye to one of the finest art historians of his generation

By Cornucopia | May 2, 2023


We are deeply saddened to receive news of Bob Ousterhout's passing on April 23, 2023. Bob was quite simply one of the finest writers and art historians that Cornucopia has ever had the privilege to publish and his loss will be felt immensely by all our readers. This obituary was...
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Posted in Obituaries

Briony Llewellyn (1952–2023)

By Caroline and Andrew Finkel | March 26, 2023


We write with great sadness of the sudden death of Briony Llewellyn, a dear friend to many and a notable contributor to Cornucopia. Briony's lifelong work on British artists in the Near and Middle East was an all-consuming passion, and her tireless scholarship made her pre-eminent in the field. Like...
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Robert Chenciner (1945–2021)

Andrew Finkel pays tribute to the mesmerising Robert Chenciner, a maverick scholar and fond friend, who has died in London

By Andrew Finkel | November 8, 2021


In medias res, the curtain rising on the action in full flow, might seem an odd eulogy to recite over the memory of a dear friend, but Robert Chenciner was someone in perpetual motion and even now it is hard to think of him as being still. Think Christopher Lloyd’s...
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David Barchard (1947–2020)

We have lost a friend, a brilliant writer and a man with a passion for Turkey and its people. David Shankland pays tribute

By David Shankland and friends | December 27, 2020


David Barchard's funeral took place on Tuesday, January 12, at St Mary's, Nun Monkton, Yorkshire. Since none of David’s family, nor his friends (other than those living in Nun Monkton), could attend the funeral because of Covid restrictions, this deeply moving service was live streamed. This is the link for...
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Adalet Ağaoğlu (1929–2020)

A tribute to one of Turkey’s best-loved novelists

By David Barchard | July 16, 2020


Adalet Ağaoğlu, who died on Tuesday, July 14, at the age of 90, was one of the country’s most accomplished novelists in the last quarter of the 20th century, and very widely read in her own country, though undeservedly ignored elsewhere. Two of her novels, however, were translated into English...
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Posted in Literature, Obituaries

The British academic who argued the case of the Turkish Cypriots

Clement Dodd, 1926–2019

By David Barchard | September 1, 2019


Clement Dodd, the veteran British political scientist who wrote about Turkey and Cyprus for over half a century, was fond of saying that he had taken up the study of politics after an initial career as a civil servant because he had noticed that in the Middle East politics killed...
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Min Hogg MBE (1939–2019)

Farewll to the inspirational founder of The World of Interiors

By John Scott | June 30, 2019


So soon after Norman Stone, it is heart-breaking to learn that another much-loved contributor to Corncuopia has just died. Min Hogg was the founding editor of the most beautiful magazine in the world and a huge inspiration to many. The Times published a fine obituary this week for the 'flamboyant...
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Posted in Obituaries

Norman Stone (1941–2019)

A fond tribute to the the historian Norman Stone, a fearless advocate of Turkey, who died at his home in Budapest yesterday

By David Barchard | June 20, 2019


If Norman Stone and Professor Ali Doğramacı, then rector of Bilkent University, had not shared a flash of inspiration during an international conference in Ankara in 1995, the love affair between the country and its most famous international academic friend might never have begun. Norman was in Ankara, at a...
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Posted in Obituaries

Rewarding reads: March and April 2017

A revealing relief, must-try Turkish dishes and the perfect day in Istanbul

By Emma Harper | April 26, 2017


In this blog series, we highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we’ve read over the past month (or two, in this case). A relief uncovered by chance in eastern Anatolia has led archaeologists to revise the history of Harput, reports Hurriyet Daily News. Subsequent examinations...
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Posted in Archaeology, Culinary Arts, Film, Music & Performing Arts, Obituaries

John Freely, 1926–2017

By Cornucopia | April 20, 2017


Very sad news. The great John Freely passed away early yesterday morning. We have lost a cherished friend of the Bosphorus, author of more than 50 books, with at least 50 more ready to roll, and one of Irish nature’s great raconteurs. John was the incomparable bard of old Stamboul....
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Posted in Obituaries

In memory of David French, intrepid explorer of Anatolia’s Roman roads

By David Barchard | March 25, 2017


David French, the former director of the British Institution at Ankara, who died on Friday (pictured right), was a leading figure in British archaeological research in Turkey for six decades. For just over a quarter of a century, he was Ankara Director of the Institute, then an exclusively archaeological body....
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Posted in Archaeology, Obituaries

In memory of Bryer

By John Scott | November 11, 2016


It was with enormous sadness that we learned of the passing of the great Byzantine historian Anthony Bryer. The funeral service was held yesterday at St Peter's Church, Harborne, in Birmingham. Professor Emeritus of Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, or simply Bryer, as he was known to all,...
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Posted in History, Obituaries

Yaşar Kemal, a writer’s hero

By Cornucopia UK | March 20, 2015


Joobin Bekhrad’s moving tribute to Yaşar Kemal in Reorient magazine perfectly encapsulates the legacy the novelist left not only within Turkey’s literary history, but for storytelling in general. Bekhrad lovingly calls Kemal, who passed away last month, a ‘hero’. Writing the piece in his Toronto apartment, Bekhrad is surrounded by Kemal’s...
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Posted in Literature, Obituaries

Dr Andrew Mango (1926–July 6, 2014)

A tribute by Andrew Finkel

By THE CORNUCOPIA BLOG | July 9, 2014


I walk most days past Aslanyataği Street in the Cihangir neighbourhood of Istanbul – which translates as the Lion’s Den. It is a tiny loop of an alleyway and  I know it better for a particular building called Jones Apt which was home to the Mango family, scions of the...
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Posted in Obituaries

David Winfield 1929–2013

The scholar and archaeological explorer who restored the frescoes of Ayasofya in Trabzon

By Cornucopia | January 12, 2014

During the eight  and a half decades of his life, David Winfield, who died a few months ago on the island of Mull, was by turns a writer on architectural aesthetics, possibly the leading restorer anywhere of Byzantine frescoes, a skilled conservationist who was the National Trust’s first-ever national Surveyor...
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Posted in Obituaries

A tribute to Osman Streater

By David Barchard | December 10, 2013


Osman Streater, who died on November 22, might have seemed to be simply the ultimate London gentleman, a Chairman of a London Club, a leading figure in City PR, an amusing but always well-informed conversationalist, and unfailingly polite and courteous, with his ironic sense of humour kept just a little...
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