Friday, June 10, 2011

Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915–2011)

From the New York Times:

Patrick Leigh Fermor, the British writer whose erudite, high-spirited accounts of his adventures in prewar Europe, southern Greece and the Caribbean are widely regarded as classics of travel literature, died on Friday at his home in Worcestershire, England. He was 96.
I read his work for the first time earlier this month.

A related post
Patrick Leigh Fermor’s eye

comments: 6

thalkowski said...

Very sad to read this news. Fermor was a brilliant writer, and (perhaps) the last of a breed. His books 'A time of gifts', & 'Between the woods and the water' were the first two installments of a projected three-book project narrating a hike he took (as an 18 year-old) from Holland to Constantinople. Erudite, & passionately written, these books are true classics. Also quite wonderful is his book 'A time to keep silence', about his journeys to several monasteries in Europe.

He was a big influence on (and mentor/friend to) Bruce Chatwin, who was perhaps the closest thing to a successor to Fermor. Chatwin's recently released volume of letters ('Under the Sun') details a number of visits he made to Fermor's home in Greece.

Michael Leddy said...

Thanks, Timothy, for sharing your interest in PLF’s writing here. I think his other books are in my future reading.

The Subliminal Mr Dunn said...

Well, Michael, partly on the strength of your earlier post, I downloaded "A Time of Gifts" onto my iPad the other day. It's wonderful. I had been meaning to read PLF's books for a long time but somehow never got to round to it.
I have actually visited Mani in the southern Peloponnese. It's a beautiful, desolate area, and is said to be home to the original Greeks, pushed south by wave after wave of invasions in the same way that the Celts were pushed west into Britanny, Wales and Ireland.

Michael Leddy said...

I just requested A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water from interlibrary loan. (No bookbuying for a while — too many already.)

The Subliminal Mr Dunn said...

I thought you might like this article, taken from Slate Magazine:

http://www.slate.com/id/2296835/

Michael Leddy said...

Thanks, Barnaby.