Pope, Hugh

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Pope, Hugh

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Attended the University of Oxford.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Overlook Press, 1 Overlook Dr., Woodstock, NY 12498.

CAREER: Journalist and writer. Manages the Wall Street Journal's Istanbul bureau. Has also worked for the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, and the BBC.

WRITINGS:

(With Nicole Pope) Turkey Unveiled: Ataturk and After, John Murray (London, England), 1997, also published as Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 1998.

Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World, Overlook Duckworth (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Hugh Pope is a writer and journalist who has written extensively about Turkey and the surrounding region as the Istanbul bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. Pope has also worked as a reporter for other periodicals and news sources, including the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, and the BBC. He began his study of the Turkic region and cultures in college, as a student at the University of Oxford studying Arabic and Persian. Pope speaks fluent Turkish.

In 2005, Pope published Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World. The book covers more than a decade of travels throughout the Turkic region, which includes the countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic. The book is organized by what the author believes to be seven shared characteristics of the Turkic peoples, such as military vocation. Pope includes detailed information about Turkic culture that he has collected through interviews with both government officials and regular people.

Critics responded positively to Sons of the Conquerors overall. Many readers found the book to contain a wealth of information about the Turkic region, covering a wide range of topics and characteristics. Pope's book is "the most comprehensive work on the Turks today," wrote a reviewer for the Economist. Other readers found Pope to be an observant journalist, gleaning much inside knowledge and insight into the Turkic people. Sons of the Conquerors gives readers a "sensitive presentation of how Turks view themselves and their future," observed Gilbert Taylor in a review for Booklist.