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christopherc's review against another edition
3.0
This is a decent, though not amazing, biography of the travel writer most renown for his reminiscences of a youthful 1934–1935 walking tour across Europe, written decades later by a much older and wiser man. Biographer Artemis Cooper knew Leigh Fermor already from the early 1970s, as she is the granddaughter of Lady Diana Cooper and daughter of John Julius Norwich, close acquaintances of his. This allowed her to spend a great deal of time with Leigh Fermor while he was alive, soaking up details and entering into his confidence, and also it gave her a deep familiarity with the upper-class British society in which Leigh Fermor moved in the decades after World War II. Cooper evidently began work on the biography already in the early millennium, when Leigh Fermor was still alive, which enabled her to interview some of his acquaintances that passed away before he did.
The chapters on Leigh Fermor’s famous walk from Holland to Constantinople, and the account of his war years largely summarize previously published work. In some instances Cooper points out fictional in the account of the great walk, where Leigh Fermor invented a character or an itinerary, but she never gets deep into investigation. The years 1936–1939, when Leigh Fermor was living with the Romanian princess Balasha Cantacuzene, are covered only cursorily, presumably because everyone involved was long dead and there was little documentary evidence. The 30 years or so after 1945 are then an extremely detailed list of Leigh Fermor’s travels all over the world, and his stays at wealthy friends’ estates and attendance at their parties. His difficulty meeting publishers’ deadlines and ultimate abandonment of the third volume of his walking-tour memoirs are described in depth.
Besides the lack of detail on the Balasha years – for me perhaps the most intriguing part of Leigh Fermor’s life – one thing that holds this back from being a great biography is Cooper’s failure to give modern context for the places Leigh Fermor traveled. For example, Cooper mentions that Leigh Fermor had visited “Pogrodets” and “Koritza” during the war years in Greece, but it would have been helpful for readers to note that these are the Albanian towns of Pogradec and Korçë, respectively. The same is true of Leigh Fermor’s tour of Yugoslavia where he toured Byzantine monasteries in “southern Serbia” – this is now the ethnic Albanian-controlled portion of Kosovo.
The chapters on Leigh Fermor’s famous walk from Holland to Constantinople, and the account of his war years largely summarize previously published work. In some instances Cooper points out fictional in the account of the great walk, where Leigh Fermor invented a character or an itinerary, but she never gets deep into investigation. The years 1936–1939, when Leigh Fermor was living with the Romanian princess Balasha Cantacuzene, are covered only cursorily, presumably because everyone involved was long dead and there was little documentary evidence. The 30 years or so after 1945 are then an extremely detailed list of Leigh Fermor’s travels all over the world, and his stays at wealthy friends’ estates and attendance at their parties. His difficulty meeting publishers’ deadlines and ultimate abandonment of the third volume of his walking-tour memoirs are described in depth.
Besides the lack of detail on the Balasha years – for me perhaps the most intriguing part of Leigh Fermor’s life – one thing that holds this back from being a great biography is Cooper’s failure to give modern context for the places Leigh Fermor traveled. For example, Cooper mentions that Leigh Fermor had visited “Pogrodets” and “Koritza” during the war years in Greece, but it would have been helpful for readers to note that these are the Albanian towns of Pogradec and Korçë, respectively. The same is true of Leigh Fermor’s tour of Yugoslavia where he toured Byzantine monasteries in “southern Serbia” – this is now the ethnic Albanian-controlled portion of Kosovo.
quaerentia's review against another edition
5.0
What a man!
PLF was an extraordinary man living in a privileged world who seemed to know anyone who was anyone. His sparkling wit, bonhomie and handsome nonchalance meant that he was never short of friends (or lovers, for that matter).
He was a polymath war hero who in his teenage years had looked as though he would never amount to much. But his hunger and curiosity to get to know his world opened the eyes of generations to what was around them, through his captivating and glorious prose (and occasional verse).
Artemis Cooper does a wonderful job of capturing the impossible. We almost know him. We almost certainly wish we had. She writes with palpable affection but doesn't shy away from the darker corners. Paddy inhabited what was clearly the bohemian end of the British establishment spectrum but he seems to have been embraced by all of it (despite living in southern Greece most of his adult life). No wonder he was knighted towards the end of his life.
But Cooper's greatest achievement on top of all this is to make us long to get stuck into those great books. Leigh Fermor has always seemed special to me ever since my grandmother urged me to read him as a teenager. I'm now raring to get back to rekindle that excitement - not just Paddy's as he walked across 1930s Europe, but mine as I retraced his steps in my mind's eye.
PLF was an extraordinary man living in a privileged world who seemed to know anyone who was anyone. His sparkling wit, bonhomie and handsome nonchalance meant that he was never short of friends (or lovers, for that matter).
He was a polymath war hero who in his teenage years had looked as though he would never amount to much. But his hunger and curiosity to get to know his world opened the eyes of generations to what was around them, through his captivating and glorious prose (and occasional verse).
Artemis Cooper does a wonderful job of capturing the impossible. We almost know him. We almost certainly wish we had. She writes with palpable affection but doesn't shy away from the darker corners. Paddy inhabited what was clearly the bohemian end of the British establishment spectrum but he seems to have been embraced by all of it (despite living in southern Greece most of his adult life). No wonder he was knighted towards the end of his life.
But Cooper's greatest achievement on top of all this is to make us long to get stuck into those great books. Leigh Fermor has always seemed special to me ever since my grandmother urged me to read him as a teenager. I'm now raring to get back to rekindle that excitement - not just Paddy's as he walked across 1930s Europe, but mine as I retraced his steps in my mind's eye.
krobart's review against another edition
4.0
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/day-776-patrick-leigh-fermor-an-adventure/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/day-776-patrick-leigh-fermor-an-adventure/
orangemulli's review against another edition
I liked some of this. But I don't think bios are really my thing.
cimorene1558's review against another edition
5.0
Fabulous. If you've ever read and enjoyed any of PLF's books, you must read this. If you have any interest in travel, writing, or the history and culture of the 20th century, you might also want to read it. And if you like a good biography, you should definitely read it!
fourtriplezed's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting read and a well written biography. Certainly worth the time of any one who admires the written words of Patrick Leigh Fermor. A book in two halves for me though. The excitement of the youthful walk and the Cretan WW2 adventures was captivating. The final half that consisted of upper middle class bludgeing ( a fine Australian word to describe a life of "Using" others) was a little too overbearing for my tastes. Is Leigh Fermor one of the best writers I have ever read? Absolutely. Would I have found conversation with him interesting? Of course! Will I read and reread him. Yes. Would I have liked him? Not sure. He may have been far too overbearing after a while.
susanlawson's review against another edition
3.0
I had read and re-read Fermor's books, 'A Time of Gifts' and 'Between the Woods and the Water' where he described the first great adventure of his young life when he walked across Europe a few years before the outbreak of WW2. This biography fills in the blanks of the life of this extraordinary man who, through intelligence and charm, led an amazing life of travel and discovery. Although the biographer clearly admires Fermor, there are moments where a slightly less likeable character emerges. He appears to have spent most of his life with little or no personal income, but has depended on his wealthy friends to support his lifestyle. Having said that, his immense interest in others, no matter their background, is obviously at the root of his great ability to write in such a vivid and compassionate manner.
persey's review
4.0
For the PLF fan. Others will be better served by reading his works first. For the fan, this fills in the cracks, but I think you end up liking him a little less. What’s charming in an 18-year old afoot is less so in a middle-aged perennial mooch with writer’s block. Still, he was a wonderful writer and obviously provided value received; the author (who was one of the charmed) does an excellent job of presenting both sides. He also knew how lucky he was.
sohnesorge's review
5.0
Obviously written by a friend of Fermor's, but Cooper manages to be objective about him and his life, a stance probably not easily achieved by people who knew him. A fascinating, funny, and inspiring biography, just like Fermor himself.
nwhyte's review
4.0
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2844587.html
I really knew Patrick Leigh Fermor only for his teenage odyssey; I had forgotten, if I had ever known, that he was a very well-known travel writer already before A Time of Gifts was published, winning awards for his accounts of the Caribbean and Greece. This all came after an extraordinary incident in the war, immortalised in the film Ill Met By Moonlight, where he mastermninded and carried out, at huge personal risk, the kidnapping of the German general in charge of the occupation of Crete. He swam the Hellespont at the age of 69.
Cooper is the daughter of John Julius Norwich and grand-daughter of Lady Diana Cooper, who were close friends of Leigh Fermor's, but she maintains a critical distance from her subject - notably, his inability to take orders which meant that he never successfully worked for anyone else (apart from his military career, though even that was constant chafing with authority) and his complex love life, which eventually settled down into a long-term open relationship with Joan Monsell, who he finally married after more than twenty years together. He seems to have been very happy, and generally charming (though there is a horrendous account of a disastrous set of exchanges with Somerset Maugham, in which Leigh Fermor was clearly at fault), and lived doing the things that he loved doing, leaving the world generally a better place for his existence.
I really knew Patrick Leigh Fermor only for his teenage odyssey; I had forgotten, if I had ever known, that he was a very well-known travel writer already before A Time of Gifts was published, winning awards for his accounts of the Caribbean and Greece. This all came after an extraordinary incident in the war, immortalised in the film Ill Met By Moonlight, where he mastermninded and carried out, at huge personal risk, the kidnapping of the German general in charge of the occupation of Crete. He swam the Hellespont at the age of 69.
Cooper is the daughter of John Julius Norwich and grand-daughter of Lady Diana Cooper, who were close friends of Leigh Fermor's, but she maintains a critical distance from her subject - notably, his inability to take orders which meant that he never successfully worked for anyone else (apart from his military career, though even that was constant chafing with authority) and his complex love life, which eventually settled down into a long-term open relationship with Joan Monsell, who he finally married after more than twenty years together. He seems to have been very happy, and generally charming (though there is a horrendous account of a disastrous set of exchanges with Somerset Maugham, in which Leigh Fermor was clearly at fault), and lived doing the things that he loved doing, leaving the world generally a better place for his existence.