Hat's Your Lot

ONE of my more interesting recent reads is Jeremy Seal's A Fez Of The Heart: Travels Around Turkey In Search Of A Hat.

I bought the 1996 Picador paperback edition secondhand - I cannot recall from where 

The book is MUCH better than its twee title might suggest and, although it is mainly a travelogue, contains much to interest the history buff.

I was vaguely aware that wearing a fez used to be a capital offence in republican Turkey, just as being an Armenian Christian proved a deadly matter in World War One (and before, for that matter).

But I did not know how much the hat, popularised in Britain by comic Tommy Cooper, drew the authorities' ire even in relatively modern times.

An eye-opening and entertaining read.