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A Time of Gifts

On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube

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A Time of Gifts

By: Patrick Leigh Fermor
Narrated by: Crispin Redman
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About this listen

 In 1933, at the age of 18, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on an extraordinary journey by foot - from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the first volume in a trilogy recounting the trip, and takes the reader with him as far as Hungary.

It is a book of compelling glimpses - not only of the events which were curdling Europe at that time, but also of its resplendent domes and monasteries, its great rivers, the sun on the Bavarian snow, the storks and frogs, the hospitable burgomasters who welcomed him, and that world's grandeurs and courtesies. His powers of recollection have astonishing sweep and verve, and the scope is majestic.

(P)2014 Hodder & Stoughton©1977 The Estate of Patrick Leigh Fermor Adventure Travel Adventure Middle Ages

Critic reviews

[Fermor's] gloriously ornate account of that epic journey is a classic of what we might call the 'literature of the leg'
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In 'A Time Of Gifts' PLF, as in the other two books of this trilogy, manages to combine the youthful energy and enthusiasm of his younger self, with the erudition and vast arstistic, geographic and historical knowlege of his elder self. The result of this heady mix is PLF's own brand of hefty and vivid descriptions of his exciting, and didactic, secular pilgrimage across Europe at the age of 18.

PLF is a treasure trove of brilliance

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A wonderful and an utterly unusual travelogue. A journey undertaken by a teenager, but written up decades later by the author with the benefit of hindsight: it has a unique combination of youthful exuberance and wanderlust, with the pathos of knowing that so much of the continent he describes was to be turned upside down by the war.

I think the whole trilogy is magical: there's really nothing like his idiosyncratic combination of interests - architecture, the romance of language and poetry, and a keen eye for cultural history.

I see quite a few people didn't enjoy the narration: I thought it was terrific and entirely suitable for the material. The other two books in the trilogy are great too, even though the third is unfinished and published posthumously.

One of a kind (well, apart from the other two)

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Capturing the time and the place wonderfully.
Patrick Leigh Fermor deserves his reputation as a travel writer of note.
I will definitely be reading the other two volumes of his travels.

Beautifully evocative

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Absorbing account of Patrick's trek across five countries in Europe including Germany and the rumbling emergence of Nazism. Excellent narration.

sunrise of Nazism

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inspirational story of a young man's trip across Europe. very good read. I would recommend.

inspirational story

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