Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) was a war hero whose exploits in Crete are legendary. Above all he is widely acclaimed as a great travel writer, notably for his books about his walk across pre-war Europe, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water.
Patrick Leigh Fermor was a self-educated polymath, a lover of Greece and the best company in the world. Artemis Cooper has drawn on years of interviews and conversations with Paddy and his closest friends as well as having complete access to his archives. Her beautifully crafted biography portrays a man of extraordinary gifts – no one wore their learning so playfully, nor inspired such passionate friendship.
A Great Adventure
In late December 1933, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on foot for Constantinople (as he anachronistically termed it). Recently expelled from school for the unpardonable crime of holding hands with a...
Read moreOff All the Standard Maps
The only time I have been to Greece as it appears on the modern map was when I was barely out of short trousers. I went with that indispensable aid to travel, an aunt, and with the idea that I knew...
Read moreIt was still a couple of hours till dawn when we dropped anchor in the Hook of Holland . . .
Snow covered everything and the flakes blew in a slant across the cones of the lamps and confused the glowing discs that spaced out the untrodden quay. I hadn’t known that Rotterdam was a few miles...
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