Andrew James Alexander Mango is a British author who was born in Turkey as one of three sons of a prosperous Anglo-Russian family. He is the brother of the distinguished Oxford historian and Byzantinist Professor Cyril Mango. Mango's early years were passed in Istanbul but in the mid-1940s he left for Ankara and obtained a job as a press officer in the British Embassy. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1947 and has lived in London ever since. He holds degrees from the University of London, including a doctorate on Persian literature. He joined BBC's Turkish section while still a student and... spent his entire career in the External Services, rising to be Turkish Programme Organiser and then Head of the South European Service. He retired in 1986. Mango abandoned his early intention of becoming an academic, finding his career at the BBC congenial. He also wrote copiously in his spare time, publishing books and pamphlets on Turkey of which Turkey and Discovering Turkey are the most important.
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