INTRODUCED BY JAN MORRIS '[This] gloriously ornate account of that
epic journey is a classic' ROBERT MACFARLANE 'The feeling of being
lost in time and geography with months and years hazily sparkling
ahead is a prospect of inconjecturable magic.' In 1933, aged
eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on his 'great trudge', a
year-long journey by foot from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul.
Three decades later he wrote A Time of Gifts, the sparklingly
original account of the first part of this youthful adventure,
which took him through the Low Countries, up the Rhine, through
Germany, down the Danube, through Austria and Czechoslovakia, and
as far as Hungary. Alone, carrying only a rucksack and with a small
allowance of only a pound a week, Fermor had planned to sleep rough
- to live 'like a tramp, a pilgrim, or a wandering scholar' - but a
chance introduction in Bavaria led to comfortable stays in castles,
and provided a glimpse of the old Europe of princes and peasants.
Hailed as a masterpiece, A Time of Gifts is in part a coming-of-age
memoir, but it is also a rich and compelling portrait of a
continent that - despite its resplendent domes and monasteries, its
great rivers and grand cities - was soon to be swept away by war,
modernisation and profound social change. 'Not only is this journey
one of physical adventure but of cultural awakening. Architecture,
art, genealogy, quirks of history and language are all devoured --
and here passed on -- with a gusto uniquely his' COLIN THUBRON,
SUNDAY TIMES 'One of the most romantic books of the twentieth
century, Patrick Leigh Fermor's account of a long walk across
Europe is also a literary treasure, a rich blend of action and
observation' GUARDIAN
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