A review by _bb
A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube by Patrick Leigh Fermor

3.0

I enjoyed this first half of his travelogue and intend to read the second book. While the writing is often dense and slow paced (the small font size doesn't help) it's in a casual, pleasant way. Like overhearing an interesting story in a cafe. Sometimes I skimmed, but not with bad feeling, the digressions of extensive information and detail (about artists, architecture, history, etc) that I know aren't going to stick in my mind. He comes off well as a traveler and person. The kind you'd be happy to sit next to on a bus, plane or train and be amazed and humbled by their stories.

If it's to be believed that the excerpts from his journal in the later part of the book are direct and mostly unedited, then he had a talent for writing that was well developed early on.