About & Contact

Tom on the Costa da Morte, Galicia, 2018

My name is Tom Sawford and I live in Winchester, Hampshire, England.

I first became aware of Paddy quite late in life; I guess he is an acquired taste. A strongly developed vocabulary is vital when reading his work; or at least a dictionary. Of course now with access to Google it is possible to quickly research some of the more obscure topics that Paddy assumes mere mortals will be aware of. I remember the first time I read A Time of Gifts and being amused that Paddy clearly expected his readers to have at least a schoolboy/girl grasp of Latin as phrases pour out with no explanation or translation.

But surely that is the attraction of his work. He does not compromise, and if you like what you read it drags you along with it, drinking from the cup of knowledge that Paddy offers.

Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor DSO OBE lived a full life, and had experiences that few others will likely ever have again. He’d done much even before the second world war, even living with a Romanian princess who was older than he, and during that war he applied his skills to fighting behind German lines, and achieved the capture, with “Billy” Moss, of the German Garrison Commander of Crete, Major General Kreipe. After the war he travelled, wrote, married, developed long-lasting friendships, probably had numerous affairs, and built a house in Greece.

The purpose of my blog is to bring the life and work of Paddy, and his many friends and colleagues, to the attention of a wider audience, and to create an archive of on-line material that can be used for research and enjoyment. He and his friends deserve to be recognised and remembered in a world that changed much during their lives, but would be the poorer without them.

If you would like to help with the blog, contribute an article or anything else, please contact me atsawford[at]gmail.com . 

or join me on Facebook.

Please visit my other blog on the subject of Byzantium; it too is full of interesting articles and photographs of beautiful Byzantine things.

Tom

April 2010

Some words about use of the comment facility on this blog:

I have had to ban two long-term blog readers from posting comments on the blog as they had repeatedly posted offensive and potentially libelous comments even after they had been asked privately to cease.

The comment facility is open to all. It is sometimes a source of good information; fellow readers help each other out with something or other; and at times is can be a forum for animated debate. There are occasions when fellow readers will argue passionately about some minor fact, and often come close to blows, but on nearly all occasions people know where to draw the line. All good knock-about fun. In the case of these two individuals they forgot the rules and did not play nicely with the other children.

I am able to see all comments and will not tolerate any behaviour that is these days called ‘inappropriate’ ie just plain bad. You can debate as much and as hard as you like, but I will not tolerate any comments that are racist, homophobic, insulting or libelous. These are red lines and I will apply a zero tolerance policy. If you are asked by me or another reader to desist, remove a comment, or apologise then please take stock, think about it, and act in a way that respects others, and also very importantly respects Paddy’s memory.

 If anyone has any issue with the above, or wishes to seek further clarification please contact me through any of the usual channels including the comment facility.