Selç uk Altun was born in Artvin,
Turkey, in 1950. A retired banking executive, bibliophile and book collector,
Altun served as a chairman of a major publishing house until his retirement in
2004. He is the author of four essay collections and ten novels including The
Sultan of Byzantium, which has been translated into more than fifteen
languages. He writes a popular monthly column for the Turkish periodical OT
called 'For the Love of Books'. He lives in Istanbul.