Words of Mercury - Hardcover

Leigh Fermor, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719561051 ISBN 13: 9780719561054

Publisher: John Murray, 2003

Synopsis

Patrick Leigh Fermor was only 18 when he set off to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople, described many years later in A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water. It was during these early wanderings that he started to pick up languages, and where he developed his extraordinary sense of the continuity of history: a quality that deepens the colours of every place he writes about, from the peaks of the Pyrenees to the cell of a Trappist monastery.

His experiences in wartime Crete sealed the deep affection he had already developed for Greece, a country whose character and customs he celebrates in two books, Mani and Roumeli, and where he has lived for over forty years.

Whether he is drawing portraits in Vienna or sketching Byron's slippers in Missolonghi, the Leigh Fermor touch is unmistakable. Its infectious enthusiasm is driven by an insatiable curiosity and an omnivorous mind - all inspired by a passion for words and language that makes him one of the greatest prose writers of his generation.

About this title

Product Description

Words of Mercury

Review

Inspirational, insatiable, worldly and utterly divine, these works will leave us all thirsting for more (The Good Book Guide)

Words of Mercury is an admirable palliative for those who can stand the strain no longer. A selection of Leigh Fermor's writings, it serves three purposes to good effect: it contains enough unfamiliar material to satisfy old hands, it will remind the forgetful or the unconverted just how good a writer he is, and it should serve as the perfect introduction to novice readers ... An introduction to a writer whose mastery of English prose has only been matched, in my lifetime, by Evelyn Waugh and Hugh Trevor-Roper, this could hardly be better ... the gems in the collection are pieces not previously available in book form (Jeremy Lewis, LITERARY REVIEW)

collection of outstanding writings ... an overview of a magnificent career (The Good Book Guide)

What is charm? In Leigh Fermor's case it is an infinite curiosity about other people. He treats Bulgarian peasants and English dukes exactly alike ... Paddy Leigh Fermor has lived one of the great picaresque lives on the 20th century. Yet his achievement is to be what he is - even more than what he has done. This collection beautifully illustrates both ... Paddy draws the reader, like his huge acquaintance, into instant intimacy. Paddy Leigh Fermor - war hero, linguist, adventurer - is at heart a great storyteller (Max Hastings, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

There is a pleasure to be had on every page ... Here is a writer who can find something fascinating in the dullest characters and the most drab towns. He is a master stylist, too, revelling in the possibilities of language, striving always to be exact. Few travel writers can create atmosphere quite as thickly, but then few have such extraordinary anecdotes to tell ... [the anthology] serves as a reminder that Leigh Fermor is one of the greatest travel writers of all time (Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times)

The perfect anthology should turn us into gluttons and should also include unexpected delicacies. This books fulfils both requirements but also a third, more difficult one: it present a complete portrait of the author. The compiler, Artemis Cooper, writes an introduction which is a model of informative brevity, but also succeeds in capturing the essence of Patrick Leigh Fermor - the man as well as the literary oeuvre ... Leigh Fermor is a generous writer. There is not a dull character in the vast gallery in these pages where barons, bandits and beggars abound, where scholars and poets are colourful and ladies are beautiful (Santiago Tamarón, The Spectator)

Praise for PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR:

'The finest travel writer of his generation'

(Colin Thubron)

'The greatest of living travel writers' Jan Morris

Patrick Leigh Fermor is an exquisite among travel writers (Sunday Telegraph)

He makes exotic and entertaining friends wherever he goes, has read everything, been everywhere and writes like a dream (The Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0719561051
• ISBN 13: 9780719561054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288