Elif Shafak is the most widely read female author in Turkey. She writes in Turkish and English, and her novels blend elements of East and West, feminism and tradition, and Sufism and rationalism. Above all, Shafak is a storyteller. She talks of the art of storytelling and argues that imaginative fiction can connect all of us, regardless of identity politics. Shafak’s 2006 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, resulted in charges being brought against her for ‘insulting Turkishness’. They were later dismissed.

Shafak’s eighth novel, Honour, was released in Turkey in July and will be published in the UK in April. It is the story of a half-Kurdish half-Turkish immigrant family set in 1970s London.