Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59209 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Sunday Telegraph
'Patrick Leigh Fermor is an exquisite among travel writers'

Review
'There is a pleasure to be had on every page. Here is a writer who can find something fascinating in the dullest characters and the most drab towns. He is a master stylist, too, revelling in the possibilities of language, striving always to be exact. Few travel writers can create atmosphere quite as thickly, but then few have such extraordinary anecdotes to tell...it [the anthology] serves as a reminder that Leigh Fermor is one of the greatest travel writers of all time' (Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times )

‘The finest travel writer of his generation’ Colin Thubron

‘The greatest of living travel writers’ Jan Morris

'Patrick Leigh Fermor is an exquisite among travel writers' (Sunday Telegraph )

'Paddy Leigh Fermor - war hero, linguist, adventurer - is at heart a great storyteller ... he draws the reader, like his huge acquaintance, into instant intimacy. His achievement is to be who he is – even more than what he has done. This collection beautifully illustrates both.’ (Max Hastings, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

'He makes exotic and entertaining friends wherever he goes, has read everything, been everywhere and writes like a dream' (The Times )

The Times
'He makes exotic and entertaining friends wherever he goes, has read everything, been everywhere and writes like a dream'

Customer Reviews

The Master Returns
Is there really any greater literary event than the arrival of a new work by Leigh Fermor? Here is English prose of the very highest order with amazingly evocative portraits of people and places. There really is nobody else who writes such gorgeous prose, is so wonderfully authoritative (and loving) of people, places, language and culture.

I did wonder about buying this volume as, almost inevitably, I have all of his major published works on my bookshelf. But even when reading excerpts from classics like 'A time of Gifts' I felt I was getting acquainted with the people and places for the very first time.

But there are lots of unpublished gems here - or at least pieces that have been published in obscure and sometimes defunct publications.

The book is based on sections: travel; Greece; people; books as well as a section called 'flotsam' that includes a lovely piece on gluttony and a marvelous letter to Diana Cooper.

Paddy is as remarkable as ever. If I've not given this five stars it is only because it reminds me (so forcibly) that we are still awaiting the final installment of the trilogy covering the walk from Holland to Constantinople. But, anyhow, while we're all waiting the 'Words of Mercury' will simply encourage us to re-read the back catalogue. And who knows; when we've finished, perhaps the new volume will be ready!

I really can't believe that anyone reading this review will not have read Paddy's work before. But if you haven't, my goodness, your in for the literary treat of a lifetime!

A must for fans of Leigh-Fermor
... but if you already own all his books, be warned that about half this anthology is made up of extracts from Mani, Roumeli, A Time to Keep Silence, A Time of Gifts and other books. However, there are some interesting previously uncollected articles, reviews and profiles.

Enchanting, and a wonderful way with words (and people)
In addition to the two reviews above - yes, some of it is familiar; fifty-five pages from 'Time of gifts' and 'between the woods and the water', but - oh joy - we get a bit of part III of The Walk, 'a cave on the Black Sea', obscurely published in the Holiday Magazine of May 1965. That alone makes it worth the price, I'd say. Another thirty pages from 'Mani' and 'Roumeli'; and - andra moi ennepe, Mousa - twelve pages on abducting a General, from a report written for the Imperial War Museum in 1969.
Bits from 'the Traveller's tree'; articles from the Spectator; biographical bits, book reviews, and even a section called, simply, 'flotsam'. It is all most enjoyable, and his way of writing gives me jolts of pleasure; it is the way the words fit together, calling up vistas, smells, unseen mysteries and long-gone times.
I am not quite sure why everyone alweays calls Leigh Fermor a travel writer. Sure, he travels a lot; but surely, he is a people writer first of all. And a history writer, a myth writer, a place-and-atmosphere writer; a wonderful writer. Five stars, even if some of the reviews are too erudite for me. A trove of treasure, this one. I recommend it to your attention, and pleasure.