Between the Woods and the Water

Superb. If I thought that A Time of Gifts was a great book this may be a touch more compelling and deserves all superlative thrown at it by the critics. It is hard not to be envious of Patrick Leigh Fermor, a life that was adventurous beyond anything that the average person could comprehend. It is not the famous events that make me envious though, it is the seeing of a world that no longer exists. His travels in Hungary and Romania took in a world that was pounded to non existent pulp by Nazism a few short years later. We can even add at the (bitter) end of this book the eventual submergence of Ada Kelah and all the other places of interest when the Iron Gates dam was built in 1970. He writes a short final appendix at the end lamenting the loss. Onto the The Broken Road. I look forward to the conclusion of a young man's great adventure.