Perking the Pansies Has Moved

Perking the Pansies has moved lock, stock and barrel to Wordpress. For Jack Scott’s random and not so random musings, click here.

A Perfect Holiday Read

Perking the Pansies has just regained the top spot on the Amazon UK bestseller list for Gay and Lesbian Travel and is number 6 on Turkey Travel Guides overall. More remarkably for a gay nobody writing from and about an obscure peninsula on the Aegean coast of Turkey, it’s number 4 on the list for Gay and Lesbian Biographies (beneath the fabulous Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?). As Julian Clary would say, “I thank you”.

The book is now better value than ever at £9.99 ($16.00 across the pond) and, if you buy the book from the Book Depository it comes with free delivery to 120 countries and territories worldwide. A bargain, I say and a perfect summer accompaniment to a cool pool, G&T, ice and a slice.

 Check out buying options here. Not sure? Maybe the reviews will help you decide.

Perking the Pansies, Jack and Liam move to Turkey

Just imagine the absurdity of two openly gay, recently ‘married’ middle aged, middle class men escaping the liberal sanctuary of anonymous London to relocate to a Muslim country.

Jack and Liam, fed up with kiss-my-arse bosses and nose-to-nipple commutes, quit their jobs and move to a small town in Turkey. Join the culture-curious gay couple on their bumpy rite of passage. Meet the oddballs, VOMITs, vetpats, emigreys, semigreys, debauched waiters and middle England miseries. Enter Jack’s irreverent world for a right royal dose of misery and joy, bigotry and enlightenment, betrayal and loyalty, friendship, love, earthquakes, birth, adoption and murder. You couldn't make it up.

My debut book is a bitter-sweet tragi-comedy that recalls our first year as a British expat gay couple in a Muslim land. For more information, news and reviews please check my website. If you like to join us in our journey as expats and soon to be repats, please visit my blog.

From Expat to Repat

‘In the beginning there was work and work was God. After 35 years in the business, the endless predictability made me question the Faith.’

I wrote those words on the 8^th October 2010, the opening sentence of my debut post on a brand new blog about a couple of silly, cynical old queens who decided to jump the good ship Blighty and wade ashore to Asia Minor as gay semigreys (or is it semigays? No, that would be those who dip in and out). For a minority report, the blog’s done rather well. Now there’s a book. That’s done rather well too. Remarkable. Both crept up behind us without hint or herald. Maybe we should have listened to the early advice of our playground peers and kept our backs to the wall. Too late now.

We planned to stay in Turkey for a good few years, slowly descend into memory loss and erectile dysfunction disguised by a haze of alcohol, then paddle back to Blighty for the liver transplant and wait for the Grim Reaper’s call. Sadly, it’s not to be. I'd like to do author things and keep the pennies (and believe me I do mean pennies) rolling in. I can do neither in Turkey. There's another reason. An important reason. There are pressing family issues that cannot be ducked or delayed. If you have read the book you will understand:

"One day, our Turkish adventure might be curtailed. We were prepared." (Chapter 12)

That time has come.

Where will we be laying our hatboxes next? Well, there's a clue in the picture below. Hint - it's not in Soho.

Thank you Turkey for breaking the umbilical cord between wages and lifestyle. Thank you Turkey for giving me the time and space to write. Thank you Turkey for handing me a story of a plate. We hope one day to return. But, for now there’s no going back on going back.

The photo above is a picture of one of the great cathedrals of England but where is it? Answer correctly for the chance to win* a signed copy of Perking the Pansies, Jack and Liam move to Turkey. Submit your answer by commenting here.

*The winner will be chosen at random by Liam from correct entries submitted before 4th March 2012. Comments containing entries to the competition will not be published until after this date so no cheating. The book will be shipped free to the winner to any address in the UK or Turkey. Delivery elsewhere (Mongolia, the dark side of the Moon, etc) may incur charges depending on the cost. Those who already know the answer are banned (we know who you are).

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