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cimorene1558's review against another edition
5.0
Lovely. Do read if you're interested in either Debo or PLF, although it's more him than her as she obviously kept letters, and he didn't! It's a browsing sort of book, but a lovely one.
bookpossum's review
3.0
It's always good to spend some time with Patrick Leigh Fermor. The best sections in this book are extended descriptions by him of walking holidays, for example in mountains in France and Spain, and some of his delicious shorter descriptions, such as this passage where he was writing about spring in Mani in Greece where he and his wife lived:
"... tortoises are coming out and courting each other, sounding through the glades like guests in horn-rimmed spectacles embracing at a cocktail party." (page 413)
References to various members of the Mitford family were interesting also, but there were so many references to other people of whom I knew nothing and who were not of interest to me (various members of the aristocracy in particular), that all the footnotes became rather tedious after a while.
So worth reading if you enjoy PLF, but probably not otherwise, unless you find the British aristocracy a lot more interesting than I do.
"... tortoises are coming out and courting each other, sounding through the glades like guests in horn-rimmed spectacles embracing at a cocktail party." (page 413)
References to various members of the Mitford family were interesting also, but there were so many references to other people of whom I knew nothing and who were not of interest to me (various members of the aristocracy in particular), that all the footnotes became rather tedious after a while.
So worth reading if you enjoy PLF, but probably not otherwise, unless you find the British aristocracy a lot more interesting than I do.
diffendale's review against another edition
4.0
Not PLF's finest writing, but a fleshing out of the man, and a nice chronicle of a fifty-year friendship: I prefer letters back-and-forth, as here, rather than all outward bound, such as in the TS Eliot I've just read as well.
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