Jason Goodwin fell under the spell of Istanbul while studying Byzantine history at Cambridge University. Following the success of A Time For Tea: Travels in China and India in Search of Tea, he made a six-month pilgrimage across eastern Europe to reach the city for the first time, a journey recounted in his award-winning On Foot to the Golden Horn. He is currently at work on the next Yashim story, The Bellini Card; as well as a shorter history of the Ottoman Empire, and a book on the religious architecture of Istanbul.