I'm extremely sad to hear the news that travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor has died. He was known as the greatest living travel writer, and while I'm not as widely read as many I still have to concur. His prose is so beautifully elegant and erudite. I won't pretend to have understood all the references he made in his books, but it was still a joy to read them. He obviously had a real passion for life--living and experiencing everything to the fullest and with a real curiosity to learn and understand, which came through so clearly in his writings.
I loved A Time of Gifts, which he wrote many years after his travels as a young man when he set out from the tip of Holland in order to walk all the way to Constantinople. The first of a projected three books covered only his travels through to Hungary. Between the Woods and the Water picks up where he left off, which I have sitting on my reading pile and will now certainly pick up sooner rather than later. Apparently he had been working on a draft for his final book, which would cover the last leg of his journey. I do so hope that it will be published. Even a draft by PLF would be an exceptional read I think.
He wrote a number of other books including a novel. I also enjoyed A Time to Keep Silence, which is about several monastic sojourns in the 1950s. I wrote about it briefly here and here. This is a slim book but a formidable one and like his other work well worth a second read.
He certainly lived a very full and rich life, and a long one as well, but this is still sad news. At least (happily) his books seem to be in print still so he has left readers with a gift as well. As a matter of fact, perhaps I'll go and pull one of them off my shelf to read right now.
And do check out this excellent blog I just discovered dedicated to the life and work of Patrick Leigh Fermor.