Diana Darke

Journalist and travel writer Diana Darke gives an illustrated talk on how her love for Syria led her to spend her life savings on an 18th-century Ottoman house in Damascus in 2005, how it was stolen from her by war profiteers and how she returned to Syria to take it back from them.

Darke has updated her original acclaimed book on buying a home in Syria. The update covers her fight to get the home back and what she found in Damascus society today. She reflects on the future for Syria, the mass exodus of refugees to Europe, Syria’s brain drain, latest developments with ISIS and the Kurds, efforts to protect cultural heritage including Palmyra, and Russian military action.

Darke is also author of the Bradt Travel Guide to Syria, and a number of other travel guides to Turkey and the Middle East. Her interest in the country dates back to her first visit in 1978. She was forced to leave Damascus when the revolution began but has since returned many times.

Supported by George Warren.