At the age of thirty-seven I left my job as a computer programmer and bought a one-way ticket to Syria. In Smouldering Incense, Hammered Brass (Turnstone Press) I describe my experiences travelling the countryside, renting a small house in Damascus, learning to speak Arabic, meeting people, and avoiding trouble. I became an honoured guest at a Bedouin feast, the victim of a deliberate "accident" orchestrated by a police officer, and I spent an afternoon with a mukhabarat agent (the more...
