Dashing for the Post - The Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor

A revelatory collection of letters written by the author of The Broken Road. Handsome, spirited and erudite, Patrick Leigh Fermor was a war hero and one of the greatest travel writers of his generation. He was also a spectacularly gifted friend. The letters in this collection span almost seventy years, the first written ten days before Paddy's twenty-fifth birthday, the last when he was ninety-four. His correspondents include Deborah Devonshire, Ann Fleming, Nancy Mitford, Lawrence Durrell, Diana Cooper and his lifelong companion, Joan Rayner; he wrote his first letter to her in his cell at the monastery Saint Wandrille, the setting for his reflections on monastic life in A Time to Keep Silence . His letters exhibit many of his most engaging characteristics: his zest for life, his unending curiosity, his lyrical descriptive powers, his love of language, his exuberance and his tendency to get into scrapes - particularly when drinking and, quite separately, driving. Here are plenty of extraordinary stories: the hunt for Byron's slippers in one of the remotest regions of Greece; an ignominious dismissal from Somerset Maugham's Villa Mauresque; hiding behind a bush to dub Dirk Bogarde into Greek during the shooting of Ill Met by Moonlight , the film based on the story of General Kreipe's abduction; his extensive travels. Some letters contain glimpses of the great and the good, while others are included purely for the joy of the jokes.

Product details

• Authors: Patrick Leigh Fermor, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Patrick Leigh Fermor
• Assisted by: Adam Sisman (Editor), Sisman Adam (Editor)
• Publisher: John Murray
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 30.06.2017
• EAN: 9781473622494
• ISBN: 978-1-4736-2249-4
• No. of pages: 469
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 196 mm x 30 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies; European History, TRAVEL / Essays & Travelogues, Diaries, letters & journals, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Diaries & Journals, 20th Century, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Letters, TRAVEL / Europe / Great Britain, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 21st Century, Travel writing, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, British & Irish history, United Kingdom, Great Britain, c 2000 to c 2010, c 2000 to c 2009, Social and cultural history, Diaries, letters and journals