Bettie's Books

Recommended for: BBC radio listeners

Read from November 15 to 23, 2012

Although I only read A Time of Gifts last month, this is coming to R4 and I can't resist...

Starts 19th November:

BBC blurb: Artemis Cooper's biography charts for the first time the extraordinary life story of the celebrated travel writer and war hero who was as renowned for his feats of derring-do as for his sumptuous prose.

Not long expelled, wearying of London and the bright lights, with dreams of becoming a writer, the 18 year old Patrick Leigh Fermor embarked in 1933 on his epic walk across Europe which was to form the basis for his award-winning and best-loved books, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water.

Read by Samuel West
Abridged by Miranda Davies
Produced by Gemma Jenkins

1. 1933. Not long expelled, wearying of London and the bright lights and with dreams of becoming a writer, 18-year-old Patrick Leigh Fermor embarks on an epic walk across Europe.

2 On his epic quest across Europe, the aspiring writer enters the Ottoman east.

3 As a young solider in Crete, Paddy devises the audacious plan that was to turn him into a war hero.

#4: Love flourishes in Cairo, and, in 1948, Paddy retreats to a monastery to write his first book.

#5: The construction of Paddy's 'power-house for prose' in Greece and a fascinating insight into the remarkable creative journey that culminated in the award-wining A Time of Gifts.



A severely abridged re-wording and with the star ratings pouring in, it would seem that the actual book is well worth it. My advice though, is treat yourself to the originals by PLF himself