The harem of the Ottoman sultans has been a subject of perennial fascination to Western readers, symbolising the ultimate in decadence, debauchery and generally dissolute behaviour. The reality of Topkapi Palace in Istanbul is a rather different matter - this reader will never forget the paralysing cold which seeped up from those grim stone floors on a spring visit, making the hour-long guided tour seem to last for days. It was a tough woman who could survive, let alone prosper, in this extraordinary institution, and John Freely lifts the lids on its mind games as well as those of a more purely, well, physical nature. Many of the facts he has assembled are astonishing - the details of child mortality, for example, and that's without counting the little princes who were murdered in the infamous "cage" - and some, such as his description of the last days of the more obscure members of the last sultan's family, are unbearably sad, but there are plenty of gory details and amusing anecdotes and enough illustrations to make you long, if you've never visited the astoundingly beautiful palace, to go there at once. If you do, for heaven's sake bring this book with you - and if you go between now and next May, bring good thick socks.
