Paul Starkey, MA, DPhil, is Emeritus Professor at Durham University and Chair of ASTENE. A specialist on Arabic literature and culture, he is Chairman of the Banipal Trust for Arab Literature and until 2018 was Vice-President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES). ; Janet Starkey, MA (Hons), M.Phil., PhD, lives in the Scottish Borders. A former lecturer on the Anthropology of the Middle East at Durham University and a founder member of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE), she edited the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies between 2007 and 2018.