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.
Michael Gorra is the author of, among other
books, The Bells in Their Silence: Travels through
Germany and Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the
Making of an American Masterpiece, a finalist for the Pulitzer
Prize. He teaches English at Smith College.
"His greatest book, Mani, was about a journey through that
little-known and, at the time, archaic region….[He] travelled [sic]
simply, staying with fishermen and farmers, which enabled him to
capture the essence of the region….Almost every page has its own
literary tour de force, often with intimidating displays of
learning and research mixed with fantasy, imagination and acute
descriptions of the scene itself." — Robin Hanbury-Tenison,
Geographical
"Patrick Leigh Fermor has written great travel books besides
Roumeli and Mani, but I like to think that his extraordinary style
is especially well suited to the subject of Greece, that the
beautiful cragginess and almost blinding brilliance of his prose
correspond particularly to that country’s rugged, dazzled
landscapes. Here Fermor establishes an ideal of travel writing: no
one responds to a people and a place with more erudition and
sensitivity." — Benjamin Kunkel
"A really beautiful book of travel in an almost wholly unknown part
of Europe, among people who still belong largely to the tough
simple Middle Ages; and it shows not only their charm and vigor,
but the delights which still await the explorer of Greece." —
Gilbert Highet
"Mani and Roumeli: two of the best travel books of the century." —
Financial Times
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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