Dashing For Post - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1473622492 ISBN 13: 9781473622494

Publisher: JOHN MURRAY PUBLISHERS

Synopsis

Handsome, spirited and erudite, Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011)was a war hero and one of the greatest travel writers of his generation. He was also a spectacularly entertaining letter writer. This judiciously edited selection of his correspondence spans almost 70 years, and includes letters to Nancy Mitford, Diana Cooper, Lawrence Durrell and his lifelong companion Joan Rayner. They sparkle with his humour, zest for life, unending curiosity, lyrical descriptive powers – and his tendency to get into scrapes.

About this title

About the Author

Adam Sisman is the author of several biographies, most recently of John le Carre. His Boswell's Presumptuous Task won the prestigious US National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. He is also co-editor of One Hundred Letters, a volume of selected letters of Hugh Trevor-Roper. Adam is an Honorary Fellow of the University of St Andrews, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Review

A fascinating and engaging sort of autobiography full of the charm found in his travel writings. Wonderful to dip into * Guardian Review * It remains an outright pleasure to be admitted to the company of such a man. This is one of those books that make you feel a little bereft when you finish it * Catholic Herald * A feast of adventure, gossip and flirtation * The Spectator * Superbly edited . . . To read these letters and their superb footnotes is to walk with some of the great ghosts of 20th century literature -- Rory Knight Bruce * Oldie * Adam Sisman's selection of Patrick Leigh Fermor's letters is entirely admirable . . . an unmissable feast -- Lewis Jones * Daily Telegraph * Glorious, heady stuff . . . judiciously edited by Adam Sisman -- Ian Thomson * Evening Standard * Here is a veritable feast for fans of Paddy Leigh Fermor . . . Sisman has done a tremendous job selecting and editing this treasure-trove of letters -- Justin Marozzi * The Spectator * Adam Sisman is a model editor . . . Reading these letters is like gobbling down a tray of exotically filled chocolates, with no horrible orange creams to put you off -- Harry Mount * Literary Review * Zest, verbal finesse, almost pristine receptivity and a richly informed cultural and historical consciousness make these letters, even when the erosions of time and illness shadow them, irresistibly exhilarating * Sunday Times * Hugely entertaining, funny and occasionally moving . . . edited meticulously and brilliantly * Observer * Zestful, vivid and buoyant with polymathic learning, Leigh Fermor's letters reveal themselves perfect for anthology. There are descriptions and anecdotes equal to anything in his writing, spurred by memorable friendships, suffused with affection and occasional distress: all finely edited by Adam Sisman -- Colin Thubron Wow - one tour de force after another! The best letters are as good as - if not better than - any in the language: Byron's, Walpole's, Henry James's, Freya Stark's. Often I laughed aloud, tears coursing down the cheeks -- John Julius Norwich

Edition details

• Publisher: JOHN MURRAY PUBLISHERS
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1473622492
• ISBN 13: 9781473622494
• Binding: Paperback