Description
| Author/Contributor(s): | Cooper, Artemis |
| Publisher: | New York Review Books |
| Date: | 1/20/2015 |
| Binding: | Paperback |
| Condition: | NEW |
PatrickLeigh Fermor’s enviably colorful life took off when in 1934, at the ageof eighteen, he decided to walk across Europe. In just over a year hehad trekked through nine countries and taught himself three languages,and his enthusiasm and curiosity for every kind of experience made himequally happy in caves or country houses, among shepherds or countesses.
At the outbreak of war he left his lover, Princess Balasha Cantacuzene,in Romania and returned to England to enlist. Commissioned into theIntelligence Corps, he became one of the handful of Allied officerssupporting the Cretan resistance to the German occupation. In 1944 hecommanded the Anglo-Cretan team that abducted General Heinrich Kreipeand spirited him away to Egypt.
A journey to the Caribbean,stays in monasteries, and explorations all over Greece provided thesubjects for his first books. It was not until he and his wife had movedto southern Greece that he returned to his earliest walk. In thesebooks, which took many years to write, he created a vision of a prewarEurope, which in its beauty and abundance has never been equaled.
Artemis Cooper has drawn on years of interviews and conversations withLeigh Fermor and his closest friends, and has had complete access to hisarchive. Her beautifully crafted biography, now available in paperback, portrays a man ofextraordinary gifts—no one wore their learning so playfully nor inspiredsuch passionate friendship.
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