Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) was an intrepid traveler, a
heroic soldier, and a writer with a unique prose style. After his
stormy schooldays, followed by the walk across Europe to
Constantinople that begins in A Time of Gifts (1977) and continues
through Between the Woods and the Water (1986), he lived and
traveled in the Balkans and the Greek Archipelago. His books Mani
(1958) and Roumeli (1966) attest to his deep interest in languages
and remote places. In the Second World War he joined the Irish
Guards, became a liaison officer in Albania, and fought in Greece
and Crete. He was awarded the DSO and OBE. He lived partly in
Greece—in the house he designed with his wife, Joan, in an olive
grove in the Mani—and partly in Worcestershire. He was knighted in
2004 for his services to literature and to British–Greek
relations.
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a doctoral student in geography at
the University of California, Berkeley. He has written for The
Guardian, The Believer, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and The New
York Review of Books, among other publications.
"Leigh Fermor exults in the otherness of the far-flung place… . He
demands nothing from those countries save an opportunity to slip
quietly under their skin." —Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
"Being a natural romantic, Leigh Fermor was able to probe the
hidden recesses of this mixed civilization and to present us with a
picture of the Indies more penetrating and original than any that
has been presented before." —Harold Nicholson, The Observer
"Before mass-market guides like Frommer’s and Lonely Planet,
travelogues were tourists’ main resources outside Europe. For the
1950s Caribbean, Patrick Leigh Fermor’s The Traveller’s Tree was
the bible." —The New York Times
"Still the best piece of travel writing on the Caribbean." —The
Guardian
Praise for Patrick Leigh Fermor:
"One of the greatest travel writers of all time”–The Sunday
Times
“A unique mixture of hero, historian, traveler and writer; the last
and the greatest of a generation whose like we won't see
again.”–Geographical
“The finest traveling companion we could ever have . . . His head
is stocked with enough cultural lore and poetic fancy to make every
league an adventure.” –Evening Standard
If all Europe were laid waste tomorrow, one might do worse than
attempt to recreate it, or at least to preserve some sense of
historical splendor and variety, by immersing oneself in the travel
books of Patrick Leigh Fermor.”—Ben Downing, The Paris Review
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