Text Box: I pick up the phone and dial 4409. ‘Hi Ersin. How are you?’ ‘Oh, I’m fine,’ she says. That has to be the understatement of the century! I first met Ersin when she started working at UNFICYP and she paid the usual courtesy call to Transport for her driving assessment. We had to wait a few minutes for the car and during that short time she told me everything about herself. She’s a Turkish Cypriot brought up in London, her involvement with dyslexia, husband, children… everything! Ha! A talker! But a very nice one because I warmed to her immediately and we have remained friends often comparing ‘hot flushes’ and belly dancing whenever the opportunity presents itself. I knew Ersin had decided to write about her life so far and her struggle to get her story published. I know about her involvement with dyslexia and I know about her illness and how courageously she is dealing with it. But when she finally published her book and I read My (File) Life I was completely astonished. I didn’t know anything! How can so much happen to one person and how on earth has she come through it all? Well, she survived because that is Ersin. You don’t have to spend too much time with her to know her as a good and generous person and her acknowledgment to her colleagues, or rather her loyal friends in PIO for their support and active help in getting her book published only proves this. Strangely, I also find she has a very calming influence over me. I say strangely because I think I would have gone very slightly mad if I had lived her life. You should read this book because Ersin’s early years in London will sound familiar to many Cypriots brought up in Britain; although I would have to say that most will not have experienced the extremes of her story. The action soon moves to the north of Cyprus in the time before the border gates were opened and the differences yet obvious similarities between the cultures is plain to see. Ersin tells her story simply and honestly and you will find yourself reading until you reach the last page. The story continues to the present day and I will say no more in case I say too much! I will just say that you will learn a lot from this ‘life file’ and it will make you stop and think and maybe even understand why Ersin is who she is. Text Box: Book Review By Christine Iacovou

Date: 17/04/2008