In December 1933 Patrick Leigh Fermor, aged eighteen, set out to walk from Rotterdam to Istanbul. This volume ends at the Danube and is compelling recovery of a middle-aged writer's youthful zest and engaging curiosity.
Handsome, charming, erudite, blessed with a gift for languages and inspired by a Latin anthology, Fermor was befriended by many whose hospitality weakened his resolve to "sleep in hayricks... shelter in barns... and only consort with peasants and tramps". Entertained by a string of eccentric, elegant, educated and aristocratic hosts, he gained an insight into a world soon to be utterly destroyed by war.
Key Quotations
- I wanted to think, write, stay or move on at my own speed and unencumbered, to gaze at things with a changed eye and listen to new tongues that were untainted by a single familiar word.
(p. 13)
Patrick Leigh Fermor (b. 1915)
No comments:
Post a Comment