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Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece [Paperback]

Patrick Leigh Fermor
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Book Description

19 July 2004
Patrick Leigh Fermor's Mani compellingly revealed a hidden world of Southern Greece and its past. Its northern counterpart takes the reader among Sarakatsan shepherds, the monasteries of Meteora and the villages of Krakora, among itinerant pedlars and beggars, and even tracks down at Missolonghi a pair of Byron's slippers.



Roumeli is not on modern maps: it is the ancient name for the lands from the Bosphorus to the Adriatic and from Macedonia to the Gulf of Corinth. But it is the perfect, evocative name for the Greece that Fermor captures in writing that carries throughout his trademark vividness of description. But what is more, the pictures of people, traditions and landscapes that he creates on the page are imbued with an intimate understanding of Greece and its history.

Frequently Bought Together

Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece + Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese + A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople - From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube
Price For All Three: £21.37

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray (19 July 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0719566924
  • ISBN-13: 978-0719566929
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.8 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 39,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Product Description

Review

'Mani and Roumeli: two of the best travel books of the century' (Financial Times )

'A masterpiece softened by warm, human understanding' (Sunday Times )

'Marvellous... we are fortunate to have these unforgettable reports from the fields and the marshes, the peaks and the chasms, the taverns and the waterfronts of the Roumeli' (Observer )

'A wandering scholar but with a difference: unlike the celebrated travellers of the past he has become part of the country he describes' (Sunday Times )

'He is in the first flight of writers on Greece' (The Times )

'John Murray is doing the decent thing and reissuing all of Leigh Fermor's main books ... But what else would you expect from a publisher whose commitment to geography is such that for more than two centuries it has widened our understanding of the world?' (Geographical Magazine 20040801)

'Bringing the landscape alive as no other writer can, he uses his profound and eclectic understanding of cultures and peoples ... to paint vivid pictures - nobody has illuminated the geography of Europe better' (Geographical Magazine 20040801)

'Extraordinarily engaging . . . thanks to Leigh Fermor's ability to turn an insight into a telling phrase . . . a compelling story'

(London Review of Books 20050818)

'Leigh Fermor is a writer's writer, a man whose prose is frequently and justifiably likened to poetry. He writes like an angel in other words -- and angels don't date' (Justin Marozzi, Financial Times 20050818)

'A Book For... The Greek islands'

(Justin Marozzi, Financial Times 20050818)

About the Author

After his famous walk across Europe - recounted in A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water - Patrick Leigh Fermor lived and travelled in the Balkans and the Greek Archipelago. In the Second World War he joined the Irish Guards, became a liaison officer in Albania and fought in Greece and Crete - living disguised as a shepherd in the mountains for two years organising resistance activities. He was awarded the DSO and CBE, and a knighthood in the 2004 new Year Honours List. His writing career, spanning over fifty years, includes six other titles available in John Murray paperback. He lives in Greece, in a house he designed and built.


Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Seductive and brilliant 23 Nov 2010
By AJ-99
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Patrick Leigh Fermor is the greatest living Englishman; admittedly the competition isn't very stiff at the moment. This book is of course brilliant. It is full of 'flowery language' and by page 50 you will have given up everything else in life to get on with it. The only thing it lacks is a sustained PLF flight of fancy like the Last Emperor of Byzantium riff or world-spanning cock-crow from 'Mani', or certain passages from the On Foot to Constantinople books; otherwise it is every bit as good as them.

Among other treats he gatecrashes a wedding of the elusive and mysterious Sarakatsans; visits the Boliarides of the Kravara, a tribe of cunning and far-travelling mendicants, learns their unique cant and hears tales of their glory days conning the credulous the length of Eastern Europe; penetrates the clifftop monasteries of Thessaly; propounds his theory of the Romois-Hellene split in the Greek national psyche; reminisces of his time on Crete during the war; and tells the story of the remarkable Lady Wentworth and Byron's lost shoes. He magically evokes the charm of the people and the beauty of the landscape, and his own charm and brilliance, his infectious enthusiasm and insatiable curiosity, shine out constantly, and you learn something new and wonderful on every page.

If you're already a Leigh Fermor addict you don't really care about this review, and only poverty, coma, or being trapped down a mineshaft have prevented you buying this book already. If you aren't, all you need to know is that he's the best travel writer of the past hundred years, and quite arguably the best writer in any field living.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant author 24 Nov 2010
Format:Paperback
Paddy Leigh Fermor is one of the most rewarding and enlightening travel authors ever. I must admit, I sit reading his books with a dictionary beside me, but half the time you can work out the meanings with a bit of thought and it all adds to the tremendous feeling of enrichment. Roumeli is a must for anyone travelling in Greece who wants to look beneath the modern superficialities. If you enjoy Thesiger, you'll love this.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Wordy and obscure, with some excellent pieces 10 Dec 2010
Format:Paperback
I have much enjoyed Patrick Leigh Fermor's books on his walk from the Hook of Holland to Amsterdam and am still awaiting the final leg.

This book, however, was hard work. I have a fair knowledge of Greek and Greece but found many of the references so obscure as to be meaningless. There are, particularly later in the book, however, some memorable tales and it is worth sticking at it to read them.

I also found the transliteration into Roman characters from Greek most unhelpful - Greek with translations would have been much better.
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