Paul Pindar is an English merchant sent to Istanbul at the end of the sixteenth century to secure lucrative trading rights which can only be granted with the approval of the Sultan. The English government has sent a spectacular clock by ship, a gift for the Sultan, which they hope will help them gain his approval. However, the clock was so badly damaged during the long sea voyage that the clockmaker has to virtually rebuild it, a task that takes many months. Whilst the work is being carried out, Paul receives some startling information. One of the workers engaged in the rebuilding of the clock tells Paul that while he was in the Topkapi Palace, he was able to get a glimpse inside the harem, the quarters in which the women of the Palace community live, and he believes that he spotted Celia Lamprey, Paul’s fiancé, believed drowned on her father’s ship several years earlier. Paul is going to dismiss the report but the man is so convinced he has seen Celia that Paul gives the go ahead to one of his servants who suggests a plan for investigating the matter. Given that no man other than the sultan – and certainly no Christian man - can gain admission to the harem, and the fact that their mission from the English government requires that they are on the best possible terms with the Palace, it is not going to be easy to find out whether the woman really is Celia.

The narration of the Aviary Gate alternates between the modern day Oxford and Istanbul, and Istanbul in 1599, although the later features more. This is essentially a historical novel and Katie Hickman almost manages to get the balance right though I still felt that she could have pruned it even further because the aspect that deals with Elizabeth’s doomed relationship with Marius isn’t that important and, in my opinion, makes the novel a little less worthy. The main plot was sufficiently interesting - in fact fascinating – to almost dispense with the Elizabeth-Marius subplot entirely. However, using Elizabeth to gradually unearth the story of Paul and Celia through her research is a good way of keeping the story suspenseful and kept the story moving at a good pace. One thing that pleased me was that the author doesn’t make any twee attempts to have Elizabeth’s situation echo Celia’s; not only would that have been difficult to achieve given the detail of the story but it would have been too silly as well and some authors I suspect would have tried to do this.

I knew a little about the harem but learned so much more from reading this book. The harem was not, as many think, a den of debauchery where the Sultan deflowered young maidens but the quarters in which all the women and children of the palace lived. There was a hierarchy among the women with the Valide – the Sultan’s mother – at the very top. The Eunuchs were the most senior of the servants, and, in turn, the Black Eunuchs were the most senior among them. It is not the case that, once they joined the harem, women were unable to leave; those who were of marriageable age and who had not caught the Sultan’s eye were “released”. However it was true that, except, for the Sultan men were not admitted to the harem. This is why eunuchs – men who had been castrated while they were still boys – were used as Place Guards; as they were believed to have no sexual desire, they would not be interested in the women in that way.