The first extensive collection of letters written by war hero and
travel writing legend Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Handsome, spirited, and erudite, Patrick Leigh Fermor was a war hero and
one of the greatest travel writers of his generation. He was also a
wonderful friend.
The letters in this collection span almost seventy years, the first
written ten days before Paddy's twenty-fifth birthday, the last when he
was ninety-four, and the correspondents include Deborah Devonshire,
Nancy Mitford, Lawrence Durrell, Diana Cooper, and his lifelong
companion, Joan Rayner. The letters exhibit many of Fermor's most
engaging characteristics: his lust for life, his unending curiosity, his
lyrical descriptive powers, his love of language, his exuberance, and
his tendency to get into scrapes--particularly when drinking and, quite
separately, driving.
Here are plenty of extraordinary stories: the hunt for Byron's slippers
in one of the remotest regions of Greece; an ignominious dismissal from
Somerset Maugham's Villa Mauresque; and hiding behind a bush to dub Dirk
Bogarde into Greek during the shooting of Ill Met by Moonlight. The
letters radiate warmth and gaiety; many are enhanced with witty
illustrations and comic verse, while others contain riddles and puns.
Every one of them entertains.
