A WELSH-born woman, who rubbed shoulders with late-1950 London glitterati before relocating to live among Istanbul’s ‘aristocrats’, has provided an extraordinary and evocative insight into her life.

“Lady Who, Memoirs of a not so ordinary life in Turkey” is a remarkable 60-year memoir from Joan Kim Erkan. ‘Kim’ means ‘Who” in Turkish.

Arriving on February 14, 1959, and married into the Arbel dynasty she has a close-up of the extraordinary lives of those around her, and then with her second husband, Osman Erkan, whose own family is steeped in history. The book has been compared to a real-life version of TV’s Downton Abbey

Erkan, who arrived in the country at the age of 22, has crafted a book that subtly reflects the rapid change and political and cultural turning points of Turkey. Through her eyes, she witnesses the country’s food, smells, turmoil, museums, culture, traditions, artists and art events, dynamism, and its recent political history.

Having spent many years in the midst of the Turkish aristocracy, diplomatic and artistic communities around Istanbul, she along with her businessman husband Osman Erkan later settled on the west side of Aydin city, in the İncirliova district. Following her husband’s death in 1998, she remains there today.

Her book relates how she met her first husband, Nil Arbel, then a student at the School of Aeronautical Engineering, in Chelsea, while she attended the Central School of Speech and Drama at the Albert Hall.

She recounts how in the common room of the Central School, she rubbed shoulders with future greats of the British stage, including Judy Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and Jeremy Kemp.

Peter Hall would judge the end of term performances, and John Gielgud and Lawrence Olivier would also visit.

She relates her links with Richard Burton and meeting him and Elizabeth Taylor, the highest paid Hollywood actress of the day, as they hid from the press following the completion of the film Cleopatra in hers and Richard’s home village of Cwmavon, in South Wales.

She was also fortunate to be in the presence of Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe at a final dress rehearsal of A View from the Bridge. It was during the whirl of late-1950s London that she met, fell in love and marred her Turkish husband, Nil, who could speak Swedish, Turkish and French.

She reveals how she married against her parents’ wishes at Chelsea Register Office in March 1958, dined at the Savoy, had a brief honeymoon in Bath before returning to London to resume their studies.

But it began a lifelong journey that having seen her become a part-time model in London, she was to give this up for a more intriguing path to Istanbul, after her husband was asked to return to Turkey to fulfill his compulsory military service.

She relates in remarkable detail of some of the finest building in Europe that they visited while on their way to Istanbul, via Paris and Monte Carlo.

Nil’s family included his father, Bedii Arbel, a top level diplomat, as was his brother Selahattin, and another brother, Muvahhit, a noted actor-playwright. His aunt was Professor Fazila Giz, one of Turkey’s first female professors, and Muvahhit’s wife was Bedia Sekip, who went on to become one of the finest actresses in Turkey and one of the two first Muslim actresses in Turkish cinema.

The family had close friends: Muharrem Nuri Birgi, Turgut Cansever, Halide Edip Adıvar, Mina Urgan, Atatürk’s wife Latife Hanım, Çelik Gülersoy, and Hıfzı Bekata.

She relates how Bedii played a part in helping to save Turkish Jews in France during the Second World War.

Erkan’s memoirs go on to recount Istanbul during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the places to go, the people, the culture, the tastes and extraordinary personalities of the day. It also included a lunch with Latife Hanim, the First Lady of Republic of Turkey.

She recalls the birth of her first child in 1959 and the fuss made over the eventual name. Eventually Ceylan was settled on, but Erkan remarked that she liked the name Lahana, only for her mother in law to testily recall that it meant ‘cabbage’.

She vividly recalls life on Prince’s Island and the bloodless coup of 1961 that ended the reign of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, whose family hailed from the Aydin province. She also recounts her life with her second husband, Aydın Osman Erkan.

At a recent book signing in İncirliova, she commented: “I wrote down my life. It was very difficult. The hospitality and friendliness of the Turks impressed me a lot. I have written small books before, but this is the first time I am writing on such a large scale.” 

And at a launch of her book in November 2021, at Sakıp Sabancı Museum, she said, “In my life that I witnessed 60 years of Turkey, I realized that the things that have changed in this country are closely related to the course of my life. 

“This is what inspired me to write a book; In this way, my grandchildren would be able to get to know Turkey closely, which welcomed me as a foreigner many years ago. I was destined to meet many extraordinary people throughout my life. In this book, I have described some of the names that enriched my journey as a foreign bride.”

Osman Erkan was the second generation grandson of Sheikh Shamil, who left his mark on history with his heroic resistance against the Russians in the Caucasus. The book ‘Turn My Head to the Caucasus’, written by Osman, describes the life of his grandfather Şaplı Osman Ferit Pasha, one of the notables of the Caucasus in the Diaspora.

It was published 10 years after Erkan’s death by his wife, Joan, daughter Rana Erkan Tabanca and his son-in-law Erol Tabanca.

The book focuses on Pasha, who lived in Arabia for 22 years, served as the governor of Hejaz, and became the ruler of Mecca and Medina. The book also deals with the inner side of the war in the Caucasus and the last period of the Ottoman Empire.

Back to present day, Rana has worked in many different sectors such as tourism, communication, radio-television, journalism and advertising.

Her husband, Erol, is a self-made billionaire. He founded Istanbul-based Polimeks construction company in 1995 with $30,000, turning it into a company behind $11 billion of projects to date, amounting so far to some 134 buildings, from hospitals to Olympic stadia, airports to government offices and Russia’s first Ritz-Carlton hotel.

He is also a collector-businessman, well-known by culture and art circles, and now the owner of Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM), established in Eskişehir. Daughter İdil Tabanca is the chairman of the board of directors of OMM and Rana is the narrator of the exhibition guide.

The Tabancas are also behind Alavya, one of the most chic hotels in Alacati, near Izmir.

All proceeds of ‘Lady Who’, which is available on Amazon, are donated to the OMM.