about me

Born in Durham, England in 1950, Dickinson spent early years in Kuwait where his father worked for the Kuwait Oil Company.

Trained at Manchester School of Theatre 1969 – 72 and worked for several years as an actor, mostly in Fringe theatre.

In 1979 he traveled overland to India to work for a short time with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, where he lost his faith in the Catholic Church.

Since 1986 he has been living in Istanbul, Turkey, where he makes a living as a teacher of English.

Apart from writing, Dickinson puts his hand to collage and has had several exhibitions of his work, examples of which can be seen at his website http://yabanji.tripod.com/

´The Confessions of Judas´ was originally published by Brandon Books in 1994, under the title ´The Lost Testament of Judas Iscariot´.

A screenplay of the novel was completed in 2001.

At his 4th trial in September 2008 Dickinson was finally acquitted of 'insulting Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister in his Duties of Office' with a collage caricature made 2 years previously..

UPDATE: In May 2009 the Public Prosecutor objected to the aquittal verdict and the Turkish Supreme Court agreed to open the case again. I decided to make a quick escape to England before the police arrived with a summons...

BUT, after a woeful summer in England, and learning that I couldn't claim social security, I decided to look for teaching work in Greece. I discovered that teachers must be proficient in Greek, so I decided to get a bus to Istanbul and go by train from there to Syria where a friend teaches, but I learned that to get a visa to Syria British citizens need a very expensive letter of approval from the British Consulate as well as payment for the visa and no permission to work. In a quandary in a small cheap Istanbul hotel, a summons suddenly arrived for my retrial, so I went to that. After humming and hawing the judge called for another trial on 27th January, when the final decision will be made.

Aquittal (again), a fine, or prison.

No more fleeing for me this time. I've decided to stay and hear the verdict.

- In February 2010 I was found officialy found guilty of 'insulting the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan' with the collage caricature I made of him in 2005.

The judge's verdict was - that I should be sentenced to 436 days in prison, OR that I should pay a fine of 7600 Turkish Lira, OR that I should not make any more collage caricatures of the PM for the next 5 years.

I am on probation.

favourite books

Lolita
Don Quixote
The Turn of the Screw
Everything by Knut Hamsun
Kafka

my websites

http://yabanji.tripod.com/     http://money-free.ning.com/profile/michaeldickinso