A Time of Gifts is regarded by many observers as one of the classics of travel literature. Written by Patrick Leigh Fermor and published in 1977 when he was 62, it is an account of the first part of the author's journey on foot across Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933/34.
A Time of Gifts recounts the journey as far as the Danube. The second volume, Between the Woods and the Water (published in 1986) begins with the author ...
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A Time of Gifts is regarded by many observers as one of the classics of travel literature. Written by Patrick Leigh Fermor and published in 1977 when he was 62, it is an account of the first part of the author's journey on foot across Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933/34.
A Time of Gifts recounts the journey as far as the Danube. The second volume, Between the Woods and the Water (published in 1986) begins with the author crossing the Mária Valéria bridge into Hungary and ends at the Iron Gate where the Danube formed the boundary between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Romania. A planned third volume, which would follow the author's journey to its completion in Constantinople, has not yet appeared.
The book's writing was assisted by the fortunate rediscovery of the author's diary of the journey, found many years later in a castle in Romania and returned to him.
Much of the charm of the book comes from the fusion of the immediacy and excitement of an eighteen year...
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