In a couple of weeks I’m off to a conference and weekend break in Istanbul, a city I’ve never visited before. My excitement is tinged with a bit of nervousness now, looking at the news. (Does anybody know what exactly you do with the milk and lemons that are said to counter the effects of tear gas? Ingest them? Smear them on your face?)

Orhan Pamuk has been one of my favourite writers since I started on [amazon_link id=”0571268838″ target=”_blank” ]My Name is Red[/amazon_link], when it first came out in English, and his book [amazon_link id=”0571218334″ target=”_blank” ]Istanbul[/amazon_link] is terrific. I’ve just bought a selection of essays and extracts, [amazon_link id=”0955970091″ target=”_blank” ]City-Pick Istanbul[/amazon_link] edited by Heather Reyes. Recommendations for others – and for primers on modern Turkish politics – gratefully received.

[amazon_image id=”0571218334″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Istanbul: Memories of a City[/amazon_image]

[amazon_image id=”0955970091″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]City-pick Istanbul (City-Pick Series)[/amazon_image]

In my time, I’ve read a lot about Keynes and a lot by him too. It started with the [amazon_link id=”B0000CHV15″ target=”_blank” ]Roy Harrod biography[/amazon_link], then the [amazon_link id=”0333903129″ target=”_blank” ]Robert Skidelsky trilogy[/amazon_link] (since updated as a single volume version), and more recently the excellent [amazon_link id=”0674057759″ target=”_blank” ]Capitalist Revolutionary[/amazon_link] by Roger Backhouse and Bradley Bateman. I’ve read at various times [amazon_link id=”9650060251″ target=”_blank” ]The General Theory[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”1441492267″ target=”_blank” ]Essays in Persuasion[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”1447418220″ target=”_blank” ]The Economic Consequences of the Peace[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”0230249582″ target=”_blank” ]Essays in Biography[/amazon_link], and parts of [amazon_link id=”1614270112″ target=”_blank” ]A Treatise on Money[/amazon_link].

[amazon_image id=”0674057759″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Capitalist Revolutionary: John Maynard Keynes[/amazon_image]

So it’s a pleasant surprise to learn new things about him, and so I am from Benn Steil’s The Battle of Bretton Woods. The story of Keynes sitting in bed in his dressing gown of a morning, dealing with his investments is well known. My admiration has grown on learning now that he also liked to sleep late in the mornings and go to bed early; he referred to this as ‘snuffing the candle at both ends’. How much more refreshing than the cult of only sleeping for a few hours a night. He enjoyed his first job, in the India Office, mainly because of the 11am to 5pm hours and two months of annual holiday.

Steil also cites this comment by Keynes on financiers: “How long will it be found necessary to pay City men so entirely out of proportion to what other servants of society commonly receive for performing social services not less useful or difficult?”

Amen to that.