Book description
Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) was a war hero whose exploits in
Crete are legendary, and above all he is widely acclaimed as the
greatest travel writer of our times, notably for his books about his
walk across pre-war Europe, A Time of Gifts and Between
the Woods and the Water; he was a self-educated polymath, a
lover of Greece and the best company in the world. Artemis Cooper has
drawn on years of interviews and conversations with Paddy and his
cloest friends as well as having complete access to his archives. Her
beautifully crafted biography portrays a man of extraordinary gifts -
no one wore their learning so playfully, nor inspired such passionate friendship.
'A wandering scholar but with a difference: unlike the celebrated
travellers of the past he has become part of the country he describes'
Artemis Cooper is the author of Cairo in the War, 1939-1945 and
Writing at the Kitchen Table, the authorized biography of Elizabeth
David. With her husband Antony Beevor she wrote Paris After the
Liberation, 1945-1949. She has edited two collections of letters and
WORDS OF MERCURY, a collection of pieces by Patrick Leigh Fermor.
