Your Paddy Thoughts
This page is open to all to post your thoughts and views about Paddy, his life, his work, in fact anything to celebrate the life of a great man, and one the like of whom we shall not see again.
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I dreamt about Paddy last night!! When I woke up I tried to remember exactly what had been happening, but (as so often happens with dreams) I can barely remember anything now, only that he was erudite and handsome… Very frustrating.
The trigger? My (Romanian) husband is due to travel to Transylvania tomorrow, and every time we visit his parents’ region I try to match up the villages etc with what PLF describes in Between the Woods and the Water. So much has changed, but here and there one catches a glimpse of what he saw (the castle looming over Deva railway station, the wonderful wooded hills and flocks of sheep being guarded by shepherds with their huge dogs).
PS Thank you for the blog.
I’ll never forget Paddy Leigh Fermor coming into our offices to dictate the foreword to They Were Counted by Miklos Banffy (written in longhand at Chatsworth). A brilliant piece of writing, as you’d expect, full of enthusiasm for Banffy’s masterpiece about the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian empire. What a lovely guy.
From Ian Stone at Stillwater Books :This man was quite simply a writer who changed my life. There are discoveries that are milestones in our lives; for me girls, beer, Beethoven and Bach, but PLF ten years ago was possibly my last. Having scored an innings just short of a century, leavened with masterful strokes, it would be futile to only grieve. A standing ovation as he raises his bat to the pavilion. May you find peace again with Joan, Paddy.
From George Giannopoulos: RIP Paddy. May your writings continue to give pleasure to new readers and ‘us’ old readers. Time of Gifts opened my imagination further than any book I’ve read to date. You will be missed.
RIP to the greatest of Englishmen. Sadly one of the last of a great generation.
I feel very silly to say I have only started to read a single one of Paddy’s books, the reflection on monastic life. But now I will dig in, and probably regret I won’t be able to say I read his greatest work while he was alive.
http://surprisedbytime.blogspot.com/2011/06/we-may-just-forget-to-die.html
Paddy has been an inspiration to me through his wonderful writing, his love of Greece and the extraordinary exuberance of his life and sense of humour which comes through in his letters to Debo, “In tearing haste”. I am very sad to read that he has died, and I hope that the third part of his trilogy will be published in whatever form he left it.
In ‘Roumeli’ I think, he describes smoking a delicious Papastratos cigarette. Almost makes me want to take up the habit again.
Patrick Leigh Fermor was my great uncle and one of the remaining links to his neice; my mother who sadly passed 8 years ago. I only met him a handful of times, but always remember him as being charming, sounding almost exactly like the Duke of Edinburgh with his cut glass English accent, impossibly handsome (even in later life) and full of fascinating stories. My mother and uncle always spoke in almost reverential terms of his expolits and his writings, and about how unhappy he was that Dirk Bogarde played him in “Ill met by moonlight”!
After a truly astonishing life, he fully deserves to rest finally with his wife whom he so adored, and have the opportunity to once again chat with my mum.
I always like the story about how after Fermor and his accomplices had kidnapped Gen. Kreipe, and they were still on Crete awaiting their escape, the general woke up and started reciting aloud a few lines of one of Horace’s Odes, in Latin naturally. Without hesitation Fermor pronounced the next few lines of the ode.
“The General’s blue eyes swivelled away from the mountain-top to mine – and when I had finished, after a long silence, he said ‘Ach so, Herr Major!’ It was very strange… We had both drunk at the same fountains long before; and things were different between us for the rest of our time together.”
I never met him. Visiting Crete, I found the book “The Cretan Runner”. PLF helped his Cretan friend, George Psychoundakis, to realise this important inside story of the war on Crete. After that I have bought every book written of him or about him. Every year since, I bring a book or two of his when staying in Chania for vacation.
Love, light and peace, Paddy!
Dear Tom,
The life of George Psychoundakis is a real inspiration, Isn’t it a lovely thing how Greece, the Greeks, and those of us that come to Greece through either visiting, reading, studying or perhaps somehow coming upon it by accident, find a treasure trove of people and writing from all around the world.
And Chania is very fine place to be reading!!
Salutations and good fortune to you
The last of a generation of true English gents has passed, brave and bold and relentless, RIP. Your exploits will not be forgotten by the people of Crete and the British Isles.
For Paddy, the big journey. What a wonderful man!
Alas! What a loss!
Even living in and being from India,a completely different part of the word~I could enjoy his writings and everything about him.I would always look forward to the newsletter in my inbox.
Curiously,on the same day as Sir Patrick (In India ,we could never call someone of such a distinguished age and calibre ,as simple ‘Paddy’!)- a very beloved reowned but controversial artist of India (Maqbool Fida Hussain)passed away too,in London.He was 96yrs old,as well.
One of our superstars(Bollywood Films)said a very interesting thing,which perhaps was as applicable to Sir Patrick~”That we all felt that he had passed the age of passing and forgot to imagine that it would one day come to this…;”
Regards and empathy, to all his other fans(like me),
Reyhan.
Alas! What a loss!
Even living in and being from India,a completely different part of the world~I could enjoy his writings and everything about him.I would always look forward to the newsletter in my inbox.
Curiously,on the same day as Sir Patrick (In India ,we could never call someone of such a distinguished age and calibre ,as simple ‘Paddy’!)- a very beloved renowned but controversial artist of India (Maqbool Fida Hussain)passed away too,in London.He was 96yrs old,as well.
One of our superstars(Bollywood Films)said a very interesting thing,which perhaps was as applicable to Sir Patrick~”That we all felt that he had passed the age of passing and forgot to imagine that it would one day come to this…;”
Regards and empathy, to all his other fans(like me),
Reyhan.
” Forgot to imagine that it would one day come to this ”
Beautiful, and sadly true.
Regards, Alison
The best writer I have ever read. Also introduced me to Miklos Banffy. Will be hugely missed.
From Maggie Rainey-Smith : I had the great good fortune to meet Sir Patrick (call me Paddy) Leigh Fermor in Kardamyli on his Name Day in November 2007, courtesy of the generous local people who included me in the invitation that he made each year to locals to join him at his home. My Dad was on Crete with the NZ 22nd Battalion and it was a great honour for me to meet Paddy and his book on the Mani is indeed the finest piece of travel writing I have ever read.
Her article is here ; http://patrickleighfermor.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/meeting-patrick-leigh-fermor-in-the-mani/
Vides ut alta stet niue candidum
Soracte, nec iam sustineant onus
siluae laborantes, geluque
flumina constiterint acuto….
…Dissolue frigus ligna super foco
large reponens atque benignius
deprome quadrimum Sabina,
o Thaliarche, merum diota.
Permitte diuis cetera, qui simul
strauere uentos aequore feruido
deproeliantis, nec cupressi
nec ueteres agitantur orni.
Quid sit futurum cras fuge quaerere et
quem Fors dierum cumque dabit lucro
appone, nec dulcis amores
sperne puer neque tu choreas,
donec uirenti canities abest
morosa. Nunc et Campus et areae
lenesque sub noctem susurri
composita repetantur hora,
nunc et latentis proditor intimo
gratus puellae risus ab angulo
pignusque dereptum lacertis
aut digito male pertinaci.
I was looking at one his books in my local bookshop yesterday, came home and heard on the radio of his death. A truly great writer. Patrick Mitchell
I sent him a letter a couple of years ago, asking him how he dealt with all the changes that Greece has gone through since he first visited the country, even since he built his house relatively recently. A Greece that is so different in all aspects from the Greece that I experience here on a daily basis. I got a very friendly handwritten letter back with his thoughts on the matter. He was blessed in many ways, be able to live a life like that, so long and so free of worries and ilnesses, with enough money to create his own world. In many ways it was Joan who provided the necessary conditions under which he could thrive. How would his life have been, had be been forced to work in a ‘normal’ company or office?
A very interesting comment. Would you be willing to tell me what Sir Patricks thoughts were on contemporary Greece? I have often wondered given his concerns as expressed in his books.
All the best, Alison
Eric, I hope it is not too much to ask, but I like Alison would be fascinated to hear what Sir Patrick replied. I have wondered what he would make of the change time and time again. And thanks for the link to what my husband, who makes documentaries, called ‘a sensational piece of television’. Marina
Marina, I am interested in that you are also interested in how Sir Patrick viewed the changes .Given his sense of the force of change mid century and his rich knowledge of past and the then present Greece now, what would he say? can send you my e-mail if you wish. I have spent a small time each year on a personal project (photos), inspired by
his route. Sir Patricks books always with me.
From Louise Jack: Paddy was my great uncle, and, even as a child, I’d sit there in awe of him. To me he was beautiful and I’ve always held this opinjion, whatever his age, his charm and wit shone through.
I was lucky enough to have lunch with him at the Mill, Dumbleton in February. Although rather hard of hearing, he was 100% Paddy.
RIP A beautiful man.
ΓΑΙΑΝ ΕΧΟΙΣ ΕΛΑΦΡΑΝ
Paul Mott writes:
Paddy’s writing has brought me much enjoyment and inspired me. His passing is a great loss to the world, His legacy is his work and the great character he was .
I must confess to having lurked on this site on and off for 6 months or so now, prompted by my finally getting round to reading ‘A Time Of Gifts’ and ‘Between The Woods and the Water’. How I wish I had read them sooner! Mani and Roumeli and the rest all lie ahead of me.
I can therefore only claim to have dipped my toes into Paddy’s world but, like many, I felt I knew something of him through the books I’ve read and I am very moved at his passing. A great man and one of the last of his kind. My deepest sympathies to his family and all who knew him.
Mark Jones
Brendan Lynch writes:
Patrick’s death, sad news.
A rare and original man, a beautiful writer, a courageous patriot..
Locked up in my youth for banning bombs, I would like to think that Patrick might forgive my regard for fellow-Englishman, Bertrand Russell.
But possibly not!
Whether or not, his lifestyle and inspiration enlarged my life and imagination. And, vanity being what it is, I am happy to know that he read one of my books
I shall drink to his health tonight in Dublin. And reflect on his last great journey home to lie forever with his beloved Joan.
Salutations!
Brendan Lynch
Above my desk is a framed photograph of Paddy’s beautiful arcaded terrace and a gracious note of thanks for sending him an antiquarian book about Athens which had once belonged to another famed British walker, the arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. His writing was a constant scource of pleasure and admiration for me and can only wish him a good journey-kalo taxidi. Phanes
Alison O’Brien writes:
2 years ago I left Sir Patrick a bottle of Brandy and a photograph I had taken as a result of reading his book on The Mani. I quietly left them at the entrance to his home, happy to have made a gesture of gratitude. Like many unfortunate to have never met him but fortunate enough to read his words I feel immensely sad.
Kind wishes to his family and friends who must feel the loss of him so keenly.
I have never met Paddy but have loved his writing.
Last year and this year I walked the route of the abduction of General Kreipe – in one village we had an electrifying moment when we met an old man – in his 90′s – who had been a runner for Paddy during the war. We showed him photos from Ill Met…- when he saw the photo of Paddy and Billy dressed as German Soldiers he became very animated and pointed at Paddy – saying “Paddy! Paddy!’ and then put the the first fingers of his hands together and rubbed them – “We were brothers.”
Only yesterday I spoke of him at work, Indigo Books Calgary, and now to read he’s gone. I came back to his work because of Susan Hill’s book Howards End is on the Landing. A delightful read and her words about Patrick are lovely. Just finished his novel and I am reading about his first journey to Europe and hope to find the one about the monastery also. I am quite taken back by his death
Your blog is wonderful and I’m glad to have found it.
Thank you
June 11. 2011
A good life.
I’ve peeked at your blog over the last few years, and just wanted to thank you for keeping this tribute to PLF. I had always hoped he would “forget to die,” or that he would somehow be granted an exemption from mortality for living his life so fully.
A toast to you, sir, at every gathering of lettered friends, for all time.
Nikos Psychoundakis writes:
RIP dear Paddy
Kalo Taksidi Paddy
Tha se Thimomaste panta me agapi, antropoi san kai esena einai dyskolo na efanistoyn ksana.
Kalo sou taksidi megale file tis Ellados.
Living in and loving Greece for over 25 years, “Roumeli” and “Mani” have been compulsory and wonderful reading. Then, on my own “wanderings”, a two year contract in post-89 Central Europe had me reading “A Time of Gifts” and “Between the Woods and the Water” and fascinatedly following in his footsteps yet again. After reading all the comments above, I just wish I’d had the courage – many years ago now – to knock on the gate in Kardamyli instead of hanging around outside in some awe….
Giandomenico Marrara writes:
I’m sad for the lost of this great man, who entered in our houses with the words of his books, particularly Mani, and the narration of his great military actions.
As a lover of Greece, literature and freedom, goodbye our friend Paddy.
Αιώνια η μνήμη. May the earth lie lightly, Paddy, as you trod upon it.
Whenever I hear of a centenarian attributing their long life to clean living – non-drinking, non-smoking, non-loving, non-living I wonder what it is that theyve done with their existance.
Paddy lived a life. He lived every breath. We are poorer for his passing but fortunate that through an extraordinary gift that he had for narrative we can see through a glass darkly his experiences.
He has been an inspiration to me since I first read him more than twenty years ago, and I have tried in my inadequate way to emulate him as a writer. There is a short tribute to him up on my blog here, and I will attempt a longer essay soon.
Late to the party, as always! I first discovered his writing through the fanship of my English next-door neighbor, when I lived in Athens for a time, as a military broadcaster in the early 1980s. She loaned me her copies of Mani and Roumeli – which I used as a guidebook for my own travels in Greece, and then A Time of Gifts. I loved his writing, and his gift of observation so much that I bought Between the Woods and Water as soon as it came out. I so much wanted to read the rest of that journey – and this was ages before I began writing professionally myself.
Vaya con Dios, Paddy…
He directly influenced my life,i walked one tenth of what he did,at 56 i walkled from towson md. to princeton nj,a distance about 120 miles,it took me about 15 days,camped along the way,a wonderful experience,without “a time of gifts”,i would not have thought of it…
A great loss – at 58 years old , I feel a boy next to this man.
My own modest tribute here: http://mellorview.wordpress.com/
It is difficult to come to terms with the idea that Paddy, well known as Mihalis or Philedem, who once walked the length of Europe and fought in Crete and mainland Greece (WWII), has left for the eternal walk. He is to be remembered by his friends and companions in Crete for his unique service in the Battle of Crete and the lengthy resistance efforts during occupation.
I met him through reading my grandfather’s memoirs of the events that took place in WWII, particularly in Crete. As the histories and characters unfolded throughout the pages of this unpublished work I realised this was a Man of tremendous proportions.
My father contacted him and we had the privilege of meeting Mihalis and his wife at their beautiful home in western Mani (Kardamyli) in 1991. I was a young boy, nonetheless, I remember that discussion and most of all his clarity, his sentimentality and sincere nostalgia of those difficult though unique times.
The memoirs of my grandfather received publication after a long effort in research and verification and Mihalis had also helped in his own recount. The book starts with a phrase before the preface that I must convey:
‘Οι ιδέες αλλάζουν και οι άνθρωποι πεθαίνουν και με τον καιρό πέφτουν και τα μνημεία. Ωστόσο κάτι που δεν καταστρέφεται, ίσως θα επιζήσει. Είναι το πνεύμα που οδηγούσε τους κατοίκους αυτού του νησιού, κάτι που εμπεριέχει όλες τις αρετές, κάτι που εμπνέει και εμπνέεται και είναι τόσο λαμπρό, όπως είναι ο αέρας και το φώς που λάμπει πάνω από τα βουνά σας.’ (Πάτρικ Λη Φέρμορ, 27.05.1981)
“Ideas change and people die and with time monuments fall. Nonetheless, something that cannot be destroyed may live on. It is the spirit that guided the people of this island, that contains all the virtues, that inspires and becomes inspired and is so shiny, as is the air and the light that sheds above your mountains” (Patrick Leigh Fermor, 27.05.1981)
Elisabeth Whittaker writes:
‘Sir’ Patrick Leigh Fermor has been my renaissance hero for many many years and his adventurous life, lived always to the full, has been a constant inspriation. I have friends in Greece, where he has attainted quasi sainthood, were due to have taken me to see him in the Mani but now I am too late. However, his writing, culture, history and incessant joie de vivre will remain with me always. I mourn his passing but the essence of an exceptional human being of the very highest intellectual calibre will never fade. Thank you, Paddy.
Paddy spoke at my father’s memorial in Athens. He had a fleeting encounter with George – one that also happened to be by moonlight – when he was landing on the island of Crete for the Heraklion raid. Paddy was taking the same sub off the island and they hailed each other across the black waters.
That sad but inevitable moment has now come to speak of Paddy.
As a family, we spent so many lovely summers at Kardamyli while Paddy and Joan would sometime take our house in Wiltshire so I don’t so much remember him there. More I remember him in Athens where, for example, one evening after having met us for lunch in the street of the Tripods and where he had lived for a while (I think I have the name correctly spelt), he talked about his walk across Europe and how he would recite poetry to keep his mind occupied. It didn’t need much prompting as the wine had been flowing now for hours and he was off, working through verse after verse of Macaulay’s Horatius. Without stopping… It was astonishing to see Paddy, then already at the ripe old age of 92, not miss a single line. Rather it was as though he was in his element. Early the next morning Paddy touchingly signed a copy of “Roumeli” that my wife, Patricia, was reading. He beautifully embellished his signature with birds, “swallows returning” he wrote. I’m sitting looking at it now and a I feel his loss terribly.
Downstairs on the staircase, a photo of two old friends stand by side, both proudly wearing their medals and ties, that of the SAS for George, that of the Special Forces for Paddy. Both lean on their sticks but both are still so full of life. Both look ahead with strength and bearing, Indeed, with Paddy gone it IS the passing of a generation.
What an extraordinary man. Handsome, engaging, charming, erudite. Full of life.
I came to Paddy’s writing late in the day, funnily enough through a mention Ian Fleming gave of his book ” The Traveller’s Tree” in one of his novels. I then read “A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, and In Tearing Haste”. What a wonderful writer he was. I hope he was able to finish writing the third part of his journey from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul, it would be a fitting tribute to him if it were to be published. These books are such an evocative account of a time before the Second World War and the Nazi excesses swept everything away. He will be sadly missed.
What a shock to hear today about Paddy’s passing. I saw him from a distance in Kardamyli about 5 or 6 years ago and that memory just as much as the books made me think of him as larger than life.
Dear Mr Jellicoe,
Yesterday I happened to talk with Greek friends about the Dodecanese campaign, a subject that came up discussing the death of PLF. Contrary to the war in Crete, the history of Dodecanese during the wartime is much less known in Greece. My friends from Rhodes had for instance never heard of your father’s parachute adventure and daring mission in Rhodes, a story that I think is extremely interesting, not only for me as a historian, but for the general public as well and deserves to be better known, especially here in Rhodes where I live and where I co-founded the Rhodes International Culture & Heritage Society. Maybe we can do something with the subject, like an exhibition for instance. But I would like to know more about the subject first. I hope you can help me with that; what book do you think does best describe your father’s mission to Rhodes? I would be very thankful if you could give me advise.
Erik Bruns
Be happy to. Just give me an e mail and I will be in touch later.
Nick
Read the books some years ago but thought little more about the man until a few years ago when my friend Billy Rae had a house built at Georges Nicholas a bit down the coast from Kardymili. Many times we passed the road down to his lovely house but we never plucked up the courage to arrive at his door with a bottle of Tanqueray. How foolish we were, as man like PLF would certainly at least have been courteous & might even joined us in a dram,what a thrill that would have been! I will raise my glass to him every night this week. Farewell to Paddy. A toff for sure but certainly not of the Establishment. A man for all peoples!
Read the books some years ago but thought little more about the man until a few years ago when my friend Billy Rae had a house built at Agios Nicolas a bit down the coast from Kardymili. Many times we passed the road down to his lovely house but we never plucked up the courage to arrive at his door with a bottle of Tanqueray. How foolish we were, as man like PLF would certainly at least have been courteous & might even joined us in a dram,what a thrill that would have been! I will raise my glass to him every night this week. Farewell to Paddy. A toff for sure but certainly not of the Establishment. A man for all peoples!
It was very sad to hear of Paddy’s death. His great friend, Deborah Devonshire, must be devastated.
Letter to ‘Darling Debo’ (2002):
“It was windy, rainy and wild at first, but all of a sudden, today, not a cloud in the sky and masses of blackbirds as if someone had rashly opened a pie.”
Lovely!
Maybe he was the last living gentleman, the quintessential gentleman old-school in whom everything which is good about European civilisation came together. Like General Kreipe said: Ritterlich! PLF’s life could be read as a modern version of Castiglione’s book of the courtier, a handbook for chivalrous conduct, a gentleman in the original sense. In comparing him with my own generation, we look bleak. But of course, we don’t drink anymore from those fountains that he mentions he and the General both drank from.
A time of gifts and Between the woods and the water, but also Mani and Roumeli are so highly appreciated – among other reasons – because they give us an insight in lost worlds. Now i realize that as long as PLF was alive, those worlds were not really lost, he was the living link with them.
Paddy infiltrated those worlds in our hearts. As long as they are deep inside they are not lost.
A light has gone out from the world. We should celebrate his life – one the best lives ever lived. One of the best of men to have lived. How very lucky we are that he was a writer – so that he could share some small part of his experiences, interests and way of looking at the world with us.
Truly a life well lived. Paddy has been (and will continue to be) an inspiration to me – being drawn into his world, his experiences, his power of observation and the energy of his writing as I plunged headlong into Time of Gifts for the first time a few years ago – that will stay with me always.
Paddy’s is a life to celebrate – I use the present tense because that inspiration and motivation of all who read him will stay alive. It’s trite, I know, but they really don’t make them like him anymore…
Perhaps we should all celebrate his centenary in 2015 with a walk along some of the Rotterdam-Constantinople trail?
It was and is wonderful to know something of you, Paddy; rest well and long and thank you for all you gave us.
David – with regard to walks I think something like that may happen. Keep your eyes peeled!
Sign me up!
“All this is a far cry from Daphnis and Chloe, a long way from Theocritus and Moschis and Bion.The shepherds of Virgil are farther away still, early milestones on a flowery path that meanders through the scenery of Herrick and Windsor Forest and Fragonard and Watteau to the Petit Trianon and Sevres.”
(Roumeli-PLF, 1966)
I was privileged to read A Time of Gifts in the late seventies when it was first published, and living in London as a angry Asian, it became a touchstone for me: I saw the light that shone through Paddy’s writing, and the manner he opened up myriad, stellar paths to other worlds, which lay beyond the normal span of the written word. I devoured it for years, and when the sequel , Beyond Woods and Water came out, devoured that as well, and then Roumeli and Mani. Long years before, when I was a child in Sri Lanka, I had read about Paddy’s exploits in Crete and the taking of General Kriepe in a WWII compendium. So when I first read him, I had some sense of history.
Paddy’s greatness to me, is that he transcended boundaries, whether geographical, ethnic or otherwise.He saw beyond the mundane, and he had that vibrant curiousity which inhabits the truly great among us. It was his in his genes to absorb all the influences he read, tasted and saw, and to climb the heights to wherever they led.
Sadly, I never met him, but one didnt have to meet him to savour the rare vintage he was: the books gave all that and more, they give a vivid insight in to times now gone forever, and of the people of those times:moving through it all is Paddy the genus loci who guides us through his worlds.
Paddy was much much more than a “Travel writer”: to label him thus is akin to calling Rushdie an Indian author or Faulkner American. He tapped into something universal, and opened our eyes to the worlds around us, He belongs in the pantheons of great writers, and exceptional human beings.
“The Hellespont is the whips of Xerxes, the wavs closing over the head of Leander”Lemnos, a carousing of Argonauts:Tenedos, a tall story on the way home from Troy”.
Paddy, I salute you; go on to new worlds,Astravoli.
Today I will start re-reading my 1958 “Mani” and 1966 “Roumeli” books and going over my memories of PLF even though, sadly, I never met him. I have enjoyed and been moved by his life and his books from afar. As Anthony Lane wrote at the end of his article, the word “leventiά” (described in “Roumeli”) is one of the attributes PLF himself had in abundance throughout his life.
So sorry to hear of his death. His exploits with Xan Fielding in Crete remain with me whenever I think of ‘good men’ and the concepts of manifest destiny and life-loving. He made me smile all through his writings and I can’t wait to re-read them now…
i’ve been selling his books first from the penguin travel series for what seems years, and now from the new york review of books imprint, but only started reading them myself two years ago, on a trip to Prague to visit another war hero Jan Wiener, who died last year at 91.
his writing so soars above everyone else’s it leaves me speechless when someone to whom i’ve recommended it chooses something else instead. your loss, i smile inwardly, while swiping their credit card for some other title that may indeed bring joy, but never the satisfaction of knowing they were on the same planet at the same time with someone who knew, who just knew. . .
a glass of ouzo, olive paste and some grilled eggplant for supper tonight, my simple homage to you
mr leigh fermor.
Avremmo voluto visitarlo nel marzo scorso ma non è stato possibile.
Ciao Paddy
Montresta …..the small village from Itilo Mani Greece
http://faliriotissa-tailsofathens.blogspot.com/2011/06/sir-patrick-leigh-fermor.html
Its Bloomsday in Ireland, celebrating Joyce, Ulysees and a sad but hopefully a celebratory day for the family and friends of Sir Patrick .
A way to remember two great writers who loved Greece and magical language , 16th of June.
I raise a glass… To Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor and James Joyce
So sad to hear the news of Paddy’s death, a great man and a truly inspirational writer. His books have been part of my life for many years and are always close to hand.
Very sad news. He seemed somehow immortal. A free spirit, a real adventurer, and one of the great inspirational characters of our times. Would have loved to meet him but he will stay very present and alive through his wonderful writing.
Very sad news. He seemed somehow immortal. A free spirit, a real adventurer, and one of the great inspirational characters of our times. Would have loved to meet him but he will stay very present and alive through his wonderful writing.
Many thanks for this fantastic blog!
пием, пеем, пушим, дамаджани сушим !
да живеят тарикатите !
Nous buvons, chantons, fumons, et les dames-jeannes vidons
Que vivent longtemps les mauvais garçons !
Sir Patrick aimait cette chanson apprise dans les Balkans il y a plus de 70 ans.
L`esprit de ces paroles va perdurer dans ses ouvrages – qui sont une invitation à dévorer les meilleurs fruits de la vie – mais il est triste de penser qu`il ne les chantera plus avec son sourire espiègle.
We drink, sing, smoke and empty demijohns !
Long live the smartheads !
Sad to hear the news, but he must have lived a long and wonderful life.
These kind of men are not made anymore…
Best regards from Sweden
Someone, I forget who, described him (in French, but with good humor) as “the snail of the Carpathians,” because he was taking so long to cross those mountains to get to Istanbul/Constantinople/Byzantium… at least in writing the third volume of his telling, decades later, of his youthful walk across Europe. A draft of that seems to be in the works for post. publication, which I’m eager to read. With his passing, though, the value of the snail’s way seems even more remote. The slow, contemplative, experiential way, I mean; the way not so frenzied, hysterical, and virtual. The way of digging deeply into language(s) and culture(s), instead of just scanning through them, on screens littered with advertisements that belittle us, and urge us to try and escape from age, death ~ from, finally, life. PLF remains an example of a grand way of living a life, a way our masters sorely dread.
Alison and Marina, I am also very interested in joining you to find out more of what PLF thought of the so many changes Greece went through in the past 30 years. With my thanks and appreciation for this blog.
I wonder if Eric Bruns has seen our plea to hear about PLF’s reply. Anyway there are now three of us asking! By the way one of the latest postings has some relevant information provided by his housekeeper’s son.
I posted an earlier tribute along with the NYT obit but I believe they got lost in transmission. In a nutshell,
Patrick Leigh Fermor spanned centuries. He was a true Renaissance man, articulate, courageous, a humble icon. On a short list of people I’d like to have dinner and conversation with, Patrick Leigh Fermor would be at the top. An amazing man. R.I.P.
A wonderful obit by David Mason who knew Paddy and his wife Joan:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304319804576388001519917490.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
A partial makeup by the BBC: Colin Thubron talks about Leigh Fermor’s writings on Night Waves, approx. 39:13 in:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011typs/Night_Waves_Owen_Jones_Patrick_Leigh_Fermor_Tribute_Luise_Miller/
I went to his funeral – I live near by – and posted a brief report here
http://andreziglak.wordpress.com/
Paul Rahe writes movingly of his friendship with PLF here
http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Patrick-Leigh-Fermor-A-Memoir
A guitarist has pickled put a fine song about Paddy here at youtube – well worth a listen – grab a hankie before you play it
He was my Uncle.
I stayed with him in Kardamyli in 2009 for a quiet relaxing week, just talking and getting to know one another again after many years as I was living in Western Canada. .
I shall always treasure that memory.
Miles Fenton
Jane Little of BBC’s “Last Word” speaks about Patrick Leigh Fermor and includes a clip of Paddy speaking. Wonderful.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011vjhm/Last_Word_17_06_2011/
I was 17 when I first read A Time of Gifts. It was 1977. So I feel that I have grown up with this long walk of his and that it has inspired my own love of history, landscape and travel. Through this website it has been amazing to discover how many others have also been moved by the man, his words and his deeds. I longed to meet Paddy, and I am grateful to those who did and have shared their tales.
I can still remember reading ‘Mani’ and ‘Roumeli’ in university. There was no one else like him, who appreciated the Modern Greeks for their virtues and didn’t judge them for their vices. A Philhellene in the truest sense, may he rest in peace. I traveled through Mani and Lakonia on my vacation this summer, having not seen the country for 6 years. I hoped to somehow meet Paddy, but upon arriving, I stopped at a book kiosk in Pireaus where I spotted the words “MANI” and glimpsed a huge selection of books in Greek. I asked if they had anything on Paddy, where I heard the news for the first time. I was shocked, as I keep up on the news quite regularly. But as of recent, I had let work get in the way, as we all do. All I can say is that someone like Fermor makes you appreciate life, even in his death. Life is beautiful.
Can anyone direct me to a map of the route of Paddy’s trip reported in A TIME FOR GIFTS?
Richard – there is a map in the book of course. In terms of detail there is little more. You coudl contact Nick Hunt who is planning to walk the route later this year. This is his website http://afterthewoodsandthewater.wordpress.com/the-route/
I first bought his book “A Time of Gifts” around 1987. I was going on a flight from Oslo, Norway to Helsinki, Finland in autumn 1988 and brought the book to re-read. The intention was to have something to calm my nerves, as I was not fond of flying. In fact, it was my first flight in 13 years. The trick worked, I became absorbed in the book, and forgot my anxiety. It was a blow to discover that I forgot the book on the flight back. I bought another one as quickly as possible, and over the years it has been read over and over again.
Inside the dust jacket of “Words of Mercury”, the collection of his writings edited by Artemis Cooper, there is a citation by a friend of Fermor. “ A friend of Patrick Leigh Fermor once wished that he could be made available in pill form – “ so you can take one whenever you feel low””.
For me his books have been such pills. Time and again I have re-read the books, and they never fail in putting me in a better mood. It is sad that the author has passed away, but his books live on.
Belated – R.I.P. PLF! I lost my peace on earth since I started reading his masterpieces.
And I am the 4th nicely asking Mr. Erik Bruns to tell us what Paddy answered to his letter.
Dear Alison, Marina and Daphne, sorry about not replying to you earlier, i had not read your comments, a friend told me about them. Well, his answer to my question was that he indeed thought that Greece had changed and lost ‘some’ of its charm as he put it diplomatically. He added that also he himself was not the same person anymore, and deterioration had also struck him, declining health and so on. He also said that at least the southern Pelopponnese had not changed so dramatically as elsewhere and was thankful for that. His final comment was that it all (himself, Greece as he had known it) lasted pretty much longer than he had ever expected. So he remains quite diplomatic and philosophical about it, no doubt resulting from the stage in life he was then (2005). His answer was not as clear as i had hoped for and it puzzled me a bit, trying to read between the lines, searching for his real opinion because i thought it was hard to understand how he could have such an almost detached view. But this was maybe typical of him, after all he chose Mani as a retreat, so he wanted to be able to detach himself from these things. I discussed Paddy’s reply last week with a friend of his, who knew him well and who said that living there in Kardamili somehow ‘saved’ him and helped keeping intact his idea of how Greece once was. And it also helped us keep our ideas about him and ‘his’ Greece intact. Indeed changes are much less there, and less radical. Personally i believe that both Paddy and Joan were saddened by ‘progress’, but too polite to express that all too publically. In Roumeli though, he does give his opinion about the possible future, and that leaves no question as to how he really felt. And i often wonder, why do ‘we’ consider him an author about Greece, still? After all, his last book (ouf of two) about Greece was published in 1966, forty-five years ago. After that, nothing. He had written what he wanted to say about it, and that was it. After, he enjoyed the climate, the sea, the landscape, and tried not to see the many developments around him. I think he was good at that, closing his eyes for things he didnt like, focusing only on good things. But this is, of course, just my interpretation.
After writing the above comment, I suddenly worried: where IS the letter he sent me! Ooff, just found it, must put it somewhere in a good place. The last sentence says a lot, I think… eLet me give you his view about it, i quote his words:
” I think that perhaps Greece and the Greeks have lost some of their charm, though I find less change and deterioration in the S. Peloponnese than else-where. But when I do find it, I console myself that I have probably deteriorated too, and (lost? – word unreadable) some of the charm I might have possessed a few decades ago. On the whole, things have lasted pretty well. I hope things turn out better!”
Dear Erik, thankyou ever so much. I have just spent 20mins replying to you and realised that you may not receive it, that it may have to go via this site. I will wait to see if it does eventually reach you, then if not will rewrite. Great contribution Erik!
Wundervolle Antwort, Herr Bruns
Thank you
I discovered Greece,the land and the people before I had read any of his wonderfull books,as a musician it was like loving jazz,and then discovering Miles Davis,s Kind of Blue
Paddy,s work will live on and on,
Andrew Scott Pendlebury,July2011
I can’t believe that as a life long reader I had not even heard of PLF until his obit appeared in the New York Times. I sent away to Amazon for A Time of Gifts and read it. I just received Between the Woods and the Water today. I wish that I had known him but certainly through his books I’ll at least get a flavor of his personality. A man of action and a man of intellect, not a combination found often in nature.
You are never too late to start Louis. At least you found him
Visit the Between the Woods and the Water category to find a whole host of stuff that relates to that particular book.
I am not sure if others posted a link to it, but there is a segment on the Lawrence Durrell blog concerning PLF, 28 June 2011. Apologies of it was noted earlier.
http://durrell2012.wordpress.com/
I wonder if there is any connection between PLF’s WW2 deeds and the fictional work “Guns of Navarone”, Alistair MacLean’s 1957 novel and the 1961 film starring Gregory Peck as Capt. Keith Mallory leading a team to destroy German guns on “Navarone”-said to be the real island of Leros. In the movie Mallory is described as the “world’s greatest mountain climber” and “speaks Greek like a Greek and German like a German”-but was chosen mainly because he has survived for a year and a half as a guerrilla with the Cretan resistance. The parallels with Paddy’s exploits seem obvious. Of course “Ill Met by Moonlight” was published in 1950 and the film version in 1957-accounts of the actual Gen. Kreipe abduction. Would be interested in hearing others thoughts about this.
There is a paragraph on PLF in this month’s Lonely Planet Magazine, taken from the piece linked to below, posted on the LP website. I am, while being a long-time reader of Paddy’s work, indebted to this site for links and inspiration and wanted to record my thanks here.
Patrick’s Leigh Fermor’s journeys alone are inspiration enough – when combined with his skill as a writer and weight of knowledge the result is a truly outstanding legacy to the world.
http://bit.ly/oMJuGV
Tom Hall
Tom – thank you for the kind words and the mention in the article!
Can anyone help me. I am producing a book of photographs of Greece, the book will be dedicated to Sir Patrick. The images were taken with his books on the Mani and Roumeli as my guide. I wish to include a poem by a Greek poet or a quote by Sir Patrick does anybody have any suggestions? Thankyou. Alison
AΙΩΝΙΑ Η ΜΝΗΜΗ (Eternal the memory).
I was so sad when i read about his death.
T’ ανδρειωμένου ο θάνατος, θάνατος δε λογιέται. (the death of the brave, doesn’t count as death).
Farewell “Filedem” Patrick.
I’ve just re-read the novel by Saki (H.N. Munro), _The Unbearable Bassington_ (1912), to which (I’ve realised), PLF refers, in _Between the Woods and the Water_. The quote is so perfectly reminiscent of PLF himself:
“[The character Tom Keriway] had wandered through Hungarian horse-fairs, hunted shy crafty beasts on lonely Balkan hillsides, dropped himself pebble-wise into the stagnant human pool of some Bulgarian monastery, threaded his way through the strange racial mosaic of Salonika, listened with amused politeness to the shallow ultra-modern opinions of a voluble editor or lawyer in some wayside Russian town, or learned wisdom from a chance tavern companion, one of the atoms of the busy ant-stream of men and merchandise that moves untiringly round the shores of the Black Sea. And far and wide as he might roam, he always managed to turn up at frequent intervals, at ball and supper and theatre, in the gay Haupstadt of the Habsburgs [Vienna], haunting his favourite cafes and wine-vaults, skimming through his favourite news-sheets, greeting old aquaintances and friends, from ambassadors down to cobblers in the social scale. He seldom talked of his travels, but it might be said that his travels talked of him; there was an air about him that a German diplomat once summed up in a phrase: ‘a man that wolves have sniffed at.’”
Saki was a brilliant writer: funny and tragic. It is such a pleasure to realise that one writer one likes – PLF – liked another writer one likes!
On the death of PLF, a number of commentators – following Christopher Hitchens, I think – referred to a quote from the novel by Saki (H.H. Munro), _The Unbearable Bassington_ (1912).
I think PLF refers to this quote in _Between the Woods and the Water_, but I can’t check at present because I’ve lent my copy. But here is the full quote from Saki, which applies so beautifully to PLF himself:
“Making Vienna his headquarters, almost his home, [the character Tom Keriway] had rambled where he listed through the lands of the Near and Middle East as leisurely and thoroughly as tamer souls might explore Paris. He had wandered through Hungarian horse-fairs, hunted shy crafty beasts on lonely Balkan hillsides, dropped himself pebble-wise into the stagnant human pool of some Bulgarian monastery, threaded his way through the strange racial mosaic of Salonika, listened with amused politeness to the shallow ultra-modern opinions of a voluble editor or lawyer in some wayside Russian town, or learned wisdom from a chance tavern companion, one of the atoms of the busy ant-stream of men and merchandise that moves untiringly round the shores of the Black Sea. And far and wide as he might roam, he always managed to turn up at frequent intervals, at balls and supper and theatre, in the gay Haupstadt of the Habsburgs, haunting his favourite cafes and wine-vaults, skimming through his favourite news-sheets, greeting old acquaintances and friends, from ambassadors down to cobblers in the social scale. He seldom talked of his travels, but it might be said that his travels talked of him; there was an air about him that a German diplomat summed up in a phrase: ‘a man that wolves have sniffed at.’”
It would be entirely typical of PLF that he liked Saki’s funny and tragic works, which – among other things – celebrated the countries of Eastern Europe. It is so nice when one writer that one likes – PLF – turns out to have liked another writer that one likes!
In his book ‘The Traveller’s Tree ‘ PLF describes the cannibal taste preferences with regard to europeans. The lines have been quoted sufficiently frequently for me to omit repeating them. Do we delight in ghoulish comments?
I recently finished the last book that Michael Crichton wrote, called ‘Pirate Latitudes ‘. I quote from para 2 chapter 35.
” It is said ‘, Lazue said, chuckling in the darkness, “that the Caribee do not eat Spaniards either. They are too tough. The Dutch are plump but tasteless, the English indifferent, but the French delectable”.
PLF has a very thin following in USA, Crichton clearly was very well read; and this book was published posthumously, being found as a complete MS in his files after his death in 2008.
Personally I preferred PLF’s commentary on the preparations of the main course, where the soon to be victim taunts his captors with his own very thorough appreciation of his captor’s flesh, such that his new captor’s would be eating their own. This quite took away their eager anticipation of the coming feast. But Crichton could hardly work that in could he?
Sorry should be ‘Chapter 33 ‘
Tonight I met Elias Pilios, who was born in Epiros and now manages a restaurant in Manhattan. Because I mentioned Paddy, Elias Pilios said, “I have a picture of him with my father and Napoleon Zervas.” Elias showed me the picture of four men, Paddy, Zervas, Pilios the elder, and a man not yet identified. Pilios was a resistance fighter who like Paddy (and at some times evidently, with Paddy) fought the Nazis and the Communists.He also fought in Korea and in Albania, where he was killed in action in 1962. The grandson, Nikos, is a soldier too, who fought in Iraq, and this September 11 was injured outside the base in the same action where 87 soldiers were casualties. Nikos is not being sent into action at this time but remains in Afghanistan and is to complete his duty and come back to New York in December. This is the third time since Paddy’s passing that a “what-are-the-odds” incident has occurred related to Paddy Fermor has happened since his passing.
Jude – that is fascinating. You can’t get a scan of the photo by any chance?
a very insignificant story about Paddy: he was an old friend of my mother, Penelope Tremayne, and as children my brother & I went to stay with him in the Mani (we lived near Athens at the time). This would be in the late ’60s, when I was about 8 & my bro was about 7. I mention this because it has been noted that he & Joan had no children. Well, by the time we finished the then day-long drive to their house nr Kardamyli, my bro had a fever & I had a filthy cold. I remember Joan tucking us up in layer upon layer of blanket, then Paddy coming & sitting with us bearing a pile of Tintin books – very surprising to us in this house of adults – and acting out various frames from “Tintin in Tibet” until we fell asleep. We had never met such kind adults outside the family. Obviously, I have never forgotten that evening.
antonia, Cornwall, UK
It is a lovely story Antonia. Tintin in Tibet cannot be beaten, even by Mani!
Readers may like to know that there is an excellent article by David Mason about PLF in The New Criterion, September 2011. Unfortunately the online version is for subscribers only or by purchase.
Mason, as a young man, and his then wife visited PLF and Joan at Kardamyli. He tried to impress with quoting Waugh and Anthony Powell, only to find that PLF and Xan Fielding actually knew these people…A funny and poignant memorial, one of the better PLF tributes going around.
I first felt I got to know Patrick through his wonderful books . On Crete some years ago I met a lovely lady who, as a child, had been befriended by him when her family were part of the Resistance. She told me many stories about him. Through her I corresponded with him and then visited Kardamyli so I could see where his house was. For many years I have revisited the area and have always loved to look down on his beautiful house. A big thank you to Miles for putting the photos of the house on the site, it was a joy to look at them. Does anyone know what will happen to his lovely Greeks home? He was an amazing person, a wonderful writer and an inspiration for living life to the full.
Ruth – the house has been handed over to the Benaki Museum and will be used as a place to stay for writers, and possibly for rental. More information on this coming soon.
Tom
Thank you Tom. I hope it may be possible to stay there. What a special experience. do let me know if it becomes possible. Ruth
Does anyone know of the war experience of Tony Andrewes, who liberated Patras in 1944. He was Wykeham Professor of Ancient History at Oxford and a friend of many of PLF’s friends (Bowra, Sparrow, etc.), and I can only help thinking they shared a glass of ouzo or two.
Dear Poverbs I am having problems hearing memorial service link. May not be available.
Happy Yuletide .
Alison – we are invetsigating some potential copyright issues. So it is temporarily unavailable.
I would loved to have met just an inspiring figure. Read all his books years ago but keep coming back to them, He was a truly modern renaissance man – inspiring all with his polished prose. I am a regular visitor to Lismore castle and often wondered what his company would have been like – no doubt many enjoyed it across Europe and beyond. One day I will visit Mani and see the landscape and people that gave him such joy. We should all be grateful for the man and his writing.
Jim Mennis KT2
I came across the gentleman late in life, wish i had read him early on. Hes of the group that includes Chatwin, and Chatwin’s hero- Robert Byron, but Paddy seems a one off in a way the others were not. His Time of Gifts documents the old Europe that is about to disappear, and the people who made it up- like the unforgettable Pips, an aristocrat with an erudition, like Paddy’s, that is no longer possible. His was a generation that read books, learned languages, disdained the wireless, and its commercial culture, and importantly Paddy had exquisite taste in women. He seems to have been an English gentleman before the breed was extinguished through a combination of forces that included TV and reactionary politic. There is a bit of T.E. Lawrence about him, and the house seems to be his and his beautiful wife’s final monument. These people are all gone now, and the world they inhabited disappeared with them. It was brief and beautiful, but underneath was a universe of horror as we saw with the Second War.
Warren Leming
Chicago, Ill.
Thanks to Tom for giving us this opportunity to post our memories of Paddy. In 2005, and after a bad mountaineering accident, some friends suggested that we should walk in mountains less prone to avalanche. We thought it would be fun to walk across Crete following the footsteps of Paddy and Billy when they kidnapped General Kreipe in 1944. We had read “Ill met by moonlight” as schoolboys, and I set out to ask Paddy for help with the detailed route that they had taken. There was a thread that linked us in that I had attended the King’s School Canterbury, and then went on to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as Paddy had done. But it was proving hard to contact him in Greece – until his publisher John Murray kindly put me in touch with Artemis Cooper who helpfully gave me his phone number and she suggested I call him that evening – “he will be having a glass of ouzo!”. He answered at once and after a brief explanation by me he said “would you like my maps of the route”. Just days later the maps arrived with a dotted line showing the route – a small parachute drawn to show where he had arrived, and a little boat marking the spot where Jellicoe had taken them off the island and back to Egypt. So we set off in May 2005 and walked the route from the abduction point to the south coast. There were many exciting moments during the walk, not least when in Anoyia we called Paddy (in Greece) on a mobile and he spoke to the village Mayor. On our return Paddy invited our small party to his home in Worcestershire, he met us on arrival – standing tall in the doorway with a bottle of champagne in hand with the words “come on in boys – lets have a drink”. After a delightful lunch cooked by his housekeeper, we sat in the summer sunshine as he kindly signed our various books, also drawing in them in his inimitable style. It was an afternoon to cherish and a day to remember.
Alun – an excellent contribution and clearly a wonderful memory.
I am finally taking time to read A Time of Gifts. What a joyful way to spend my evenings lately.
There are better ways, but very few
) I think the addition of a smooth red wine helps. If you are reading it now you are in Paddy’s winter timeline. Maybe you are also following Nick Hunt and his walk in Paddy’s footsteps? He is now somewhere beyond Munich. http://afterthewoodsandthewater.wordpress.com/
ΚΑΛΟ ΤΑΞΙΔΙ ΦΙΛΕ ΠΑΤΡΙΚ. Η ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΑ ΣΟΥ ΑΝΗΚΕΙ!
Looking at old Lilliput magazines (my son has an assignment on the short story), I was delighted to find that the October 1947 issue featured a story by Xan Fielding. The “Our Contributors” section reads, simply:
“Xan Fielding has spent most of his 28 years in Mediterranean countries and during the war was engaged on clandestine activity in enemy-occupied territories: the Balkans, France and the Far East.”
The story, set in Cairo, is called “Fellow Feeling”, and it is about a sense of hatred felt for a total stranger. It is a perfect example of a very short story.
So Fielding, and probably PLF, read the wonderful Lilliput magazine in the 1940s! I wrote about Lilliput magazine in The New Criterion some years ago, and this is another reason to read it.
Does anyone know the fate of the earthly paradise he created at Kardamyli? I see Christies have auctioned his UK possessions, but it seems to me that Kardamyli should be preserved intact as a permanent memorial to this great man and his love for Greece.
It has been donated to the Greek museum and foundation The Benaki. We are as yet unclear what they will do with it, but in the future it may be possible to visit the house. http://patrickleighfermor.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/british-philhellene-author-patrick-leigh-fermor-donates-kardamyli-home-to-benaki/