In 1933, at the age of 18, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on an extraordinary journey by foot - from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the first volume in a trilogy recounting the trip, and takes the reader with him as far as Hungary. It is a book of compelling glimpses - not only of the events which were curdling Europe at that time, but also of its resplendent domes and monasteries, its great rivers, the sun on the Bavarian snow, the storks and frogs, the hospitable burgomasters who welcomed him, and that world's grandeurs and courtesies. His powers of recollection have astonishing sweep and verve, and the scope is majestic.
A Time of Gifts
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Nothing short of a masterpiece (Jan Morris)
A treasure chest of descriptive writing (Spectator)
Not only is the journey one of physical adventure but of cultural awakening. Architecture, art, genealogy, quirks of history and language are all devoured - and here passed on - with a gusto uniquely his (Colin Thubron, Sunday Telegraph)
Every page of this book is distinguished by an image, a metaphor, a flash of humour always original and sometimes as incisive as a laser beam. (Vincent Cronin)
A tremendous journey ... and he's fabulous company (Manchester Evening News)
This is a traveller's tale at its infectious and informative best; vividly remembered and beautifully written (Church 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)
Rightly considered to be among the most beautiful travel books in the language (Independent)
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)
A treasure chest of descriptive writing (Spectator)
Not only is the journey one of physical adventure but of cultural awakening. Architecture, art, genealogy, quirks of history and language are all devoured - and here passed on - with a gusto uniquely his (Colin Thubron, Sunday Telegraph)
Every page of this book is distinguished by an image, a metaphor, a flash of humour always original and sometimes as incisive as a laser beam. (Vincent Cronin)
A tremendous journey ... and he's fabulous company (Manchester Evening News)
This is a traveller's tale at its infectious and informative best; vividly remembered and beautifully written (Church 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)
Rightly considered to be among the most beautiful travel books in the language (Independent)
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)
About the Author
In December 1933, at the age of eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) walked across Europe, reaching Constantinople in early 1935. He travelled on into Greece, where in Athens he met Balasha Cantacuzene, with whom he lived - mostly in Rumania - until the outbreak of war. Serving in occupied Crete, he led a successful operation to kidnap a German general, for which he won the DSO. After the war he began writing, and travelled extensively round Greece with Joan Eyres Monsell whom he later married. Towards the end of his life he wrote the first two books about his early trans-European odyssey, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water. He planned a third, unfinished at the time of his death in 2011, which has since been edited by Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper and published as The Broken Road.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first book of two describing a 1,200 mile walk from Holland to Constantinople undertaken in 1934 when the author was 18 years old. The book was written some forty years later, events and people recalled from memory and notes in a diary.
The language of this book is pure poetry, just a delight to read. The author beautifully describes amazing countryside, castles, rivers, fascinating and incredibly generous people and a way of life in parts of Europe that were forever destroyed by the war. He walked through Germany during the time that Nazism was in the ascendancy, giving hope and optimism to a nation that had long been on its knees. It is fascinating to read about the excitement that Nazism brought to Germany in 1934 with the knowledge of the destruction and horror that it brought to the World just a few short years later.
The author met the most amazing people, a lot through good luck and fortune, but a lot to do with the fact that the author comes across as a delightful companion; polite, intelligent and with a young man's enthusiasm for life and living.
I can't wait to read the second part, 'Between the Woods and the Water'.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By C. o'neill
Format:Paperback
I bought this book on the strength of the reviews having stumbled across it on one of my Amazon rambles and I am very glad that I did. I am giving it 5 stars and my own review as I wanted to join the already substantial voices that praise this book.
The lyrical prose that Leigh Fermor uses deftly draws us into this almost magical Europe. He summons up images from a bygone era without once touching on cliche or the sometimes pedestrian descriptions often found in travelogues. Following him from the ice-bound canals of the polders of the Netherlands, down the castle strewn Rhine and across the snowy mountains and woods of Bavaria and Austria we are introduced to a range of fascinating characters and lost customs. Tableaus of Breughelesqe scenes in tankard-filled inns or moonlit trudges across a starlit landscape come alive in his skilled hands.
Clearly an incredibly talented linguist, observant social anthropologist and knowledgeable individual he uses his talents liberally to describe and illuminate Europe in the early 1930's. The fact that it was written with the benefit of hindsight adds to the book's rich detail rather than detracting from it.
The lyrical prose that Leigh Fermor uses deftly draws us into this almost magical Europe. He summons up images from a bygone era without once touching on cliche or the sometimes pedestrian descriptions often found in travelogues. Following him from the ice-bound canals of the polders of the Netherlands, down the castle strewn Rhine and across the snowy mountains and woods of Bavaria and Austria we are introduced to a range of fascinating characters and lost customs. Tableaus of Breughelesqe scenes in tankard-filled inns or moonlit trudges across a starlit landscape come alive in his skilled hands.
Clearly an incredibly talented linguist, observant social anthropologist and knowledgeable individual he uses his talents liberally to describe and illuminate Europe in the early 1930's. The fact that it was written with the benefit of hindsight adds to the book's rich detail rather than detracting from it.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By P. Reavy
Format:Paperback
At first I had trouble adjusting to Leigh Fermor's extremely descriptive style. He furnishes his writing with rarely-used words and is happy to hold up the story for pages while he sidetracks us with art historical or architectural speculations. However, his charm and learning prove irresistible. This is an unforgettable book.
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Leigh Fermor's great classic is extraordinary. His language is immensely beautiful, but I beleive that the secret to understand the book is that he is actually painting pictures with words. There are some great set pieces: the walk in Holland, breakfast in Rottterdam, the cold, the chateau life he began to lead after Munich. He is a polymath and the book is not really travel literature at all, or if it is, it is of a totally different order to anything I have ever read. Will Leigh Fermor write the promised third part of the great trilogy?
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By jmm
Format:Paperback
I have read this book at least three times. It never fails to entrance me.
This records not just a journey , but also a way of life and an era which the second world war changed for ever.
His eye for detail and gifts of lively desciption more than stand the test of time.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
It was read by Samuel West (I think) and was on Radio 4. The language is lyrical and paints an intensely vivid picture of the countries, people and sights he passes. The reader's voice added to it, but it was the language itself which was descriptive and sheer pleasure. It was broadcast late and to close one's eyes and imagine was superb. In one particularly poignant scene he described the sky as so perfect it just needed a Chinese ideogram in red to render it complete (but in much better language!) Inspired to read it in print myself now. One of the most beautiful books I have ever heard.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful book, an adventure story. Only 17, he walks from London to Budapest in the early thirties, a remarkable feat in itself, this book is like a memoir of that trip. Along the way he shares his thoughts on the people he meets and the places he visits. Interspersed with objective and sympathetic observations of history art and culture, mixed with hindsight. The book shows us a glimpse of what the people of Europe were like just before the second World War. Fermor has a rare gift in the way that he understands and can explain what he sees.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Lady Vibart
Format:Paperback
I stumbled on this book by chance having nothing else to read at the time. I was intrigued from the start by his letter in the preface about his time in wartime Greece and how poetry crossed the cultural and military barriers of political prisoners. Then the real journey unfolded and I found myself re reading whole paragraphs just to savour his wonderfully poetic and detailled descriptions of life in 1930's Europe. The rather idyllic freedom with which he travels from village to town to city and across borders, lodging in Innkeeper's attics and medieval castles and meeting every kind of character from jolly German burghers stuffing themselves with pork and beer to ascetic scholars discussing some latin prose, is all the more nostalgic, set as it is against the early stirrings of the Brown Shirts who later terrorised Europe till 1945. His descriptions of architectural gems, social outings and the countryside in all seasons really brings that epoch back to life and we mourn its passing. His journey skips along at a pace in places and dawdles along in others as his interest is fired and friendhips are forged or rekindled. He meets so many strangers who treat him so kindly in a world where the traveller on foot was becoming an oddity and yet hospitality and trust abounded. PLF's description of the raspberry liqueur he shared with the German publican is just one of the many gems that adorn this delightful story of a young man's travels in middle Europe. i usually prefer fiction to travelogues but what a joy to come across this book at a time in my life that i can really appreciate its many levels and twists and turns. At times it almost feels like a fairy story and at others there is the faint hint of the future horrors released by nazism.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An extraordinary feat of imaginative memory
This is a difficult but ultimately wonderful account of the 18 year- old Leigh Fermor's journey, mostly by foot, from Rotterdam to the Hungarian border. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Peter D
5.0 out of 5 stars
A genuinely beautiful story
First published in 1977, 'A Time of Gifts' is a near-lyrical account of Patrick Leigh Fermor's journey on foot - in 1933/34 when he was 18 - from the Hook of Holland to the Middle... Read more
Published 1 month ago by T. D. Dawson
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good book ,wished we knew more adout people and places and events that...
l liked it well enough but l wouldnt recommend it to a friend ,it wasa book we read at our book group , and the general concensuse seemed to be that he tried hard to show how... Read more
Published 1 month ago by ann williams
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why did it take me so long to find this?
A friend recommended this remarkable volume and I loved it from the first. As a speaker of faltering German I really liked the story as Leigh-Fermor walked through Germany and... Read more
Published 2 months ago by PETER J VOUSDEN
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just superb
These books are just a simple joy. He was such a vibrant, interesting, humorous person and impossible to dislike. Great.
Published 2 months ago by Lorna
2.0 out of 5 stars
I made it up mostly
This book was disappointing: full of descriptions, page after unbelievable page. How did he remember it all in such detail,having lost his diary and writing it decades afterwards? Read more
Published 3 months ago by G H Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful journey
I purchased this book as it had been chosen by my Book Club. Very evocative and interesting. We all wondered if such a walk would be possible now staying in such a variety of... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Carol Mackenzie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic tale
Every young traveler should read this book - I bought it for my son. Buy it then pass it on for someone else to read! Speedily delivered.
Published 4 months ago by EmH
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book club
Bought this book to read as part of our book club and really enjoyed the journey. Other members of the club also enjoyed the read
Published 4 months ago by acreseven
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Time of Personal Crysalization
This is the first installment of an epic journey undertaken by a very young man who by December 1933 was finding himself at the end of his tether. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. Nichols
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