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Between the Woods and the Water

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

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Between the Woods and the Water

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

Winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, Silver PEN Award, 1987.The acclaimed travel writer's youthful journey - as an 18-year-old - across 1930s Europe by foot began in A Time of Gifts, which covered the author's exacting journey from the Lowlands as far as Hungary.

Picking up from the very spot on a bridge across the Danube where his readers last saw him, we travel on with him across the great Hungarian Plain on horseback, and over the Romanian border to Transylvania.The trip was an exploration of a continent which was already showing signs of the holocaust which was to come. Although frequently praised for his lyrical writing, Fermor's account also provides a coherent understanding of the dramatic events then unfolding in Middle Europe. But the delight remains in travelling with him in his picaresque journey past remote castles, mountain villages, monasteries and towering ranges.

©1986 The estate of Patrick Leigh Fermor (P)2014 John Murray Press Action & Adventure Adventure Travel Europe Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Suspense Thriller & Suspense

Critic reviews

"Between the Woods and the Water is a book so good you will resent finishing it" ( Sunday Times)
"The finest travelling companion we could ever have... His head is stocked with cultural lore and poetic fancy to make every league an adventure." ( Christopher Hudson, Evening Standard)
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Compelling listening. Best travel books ever! His description of people and places is truly unique.

Fantastic!

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PLF is a poet and this is a lovesong to life in its completeness, unmissable

don't listen to the appensix, the rest is spotless

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I cannot begin to say how much I have enjoyed this and the prequel “A time for gifts”, the beautiful prose have transported me to another place and on occasions made me sigh out loud with pleasure as I walk through the woods listening through my headphones whilst walking my dog . The narration is slow but perfect and brings the passages to life, the descriptions of the history, politics art and literature of all the areas is superb and I found the book to be an extremely uplifting and educational experience , it captures the time it was written in beautifully . Thank you

I absolutely loved this book

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Read all three books & was really looking forward to listening to them. Sadly, although Mr Redman has a pleasing voice and style his pronunciation is so consistently erratic as to spoil the whole experience. If only the producers would ensure that their narrators were up to speed with standard pronunciation! A good plan would be for any narrator, especially one dealing with a lot of foreign words or place names, to check with the BBC guide. It really ruined the books for me.

So near but so far

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