"A Time of Gifts" (review)

...by Patrick Leigh Fermor, 1977, John Murray Travel Classics (paperback).

Life is too short to read all good books...therefore I have compensated with the belief that there will be a stonking good library in Heaven, where excellent coffee is served and there are luxurious armchairs to sit in as well (if we need or want them of course).

A Time of Gifts is a good book, and one well worth reading in terms of both style and content. It is the first of two books which recount Fermor's inspired journey, largely by foot, from the Hoek (corner) of Holland to Constantinople in 1933.

Fermor's style is energetic and fulsome - it is the literary equivalent of having a wonderful hunk of fresh bread and good cheese (Gouda???) washed down with a zesty glass of red wine...in fact, many of the descriptive passages are precisely about the food and drink of the journey, and the cultural contexts within which these elements are devoured.

There are also descriptive passages of the landscape through which Fermor journeys, beginning with his wintry welcome in Holland and finishing (in this book) in spring time in Hungary. With these landscapes, a suitable soundtrack would be provided by Schubert, Mahler and a bit of Beethoven (also some gypsy music for the Eastern European bits, if not Liszt/Dvorak/Smetana/Bartok).

Fermor's naivety regarding the brownshirts and the rise of the Nazis is poignant, honest and telling, almost more in what is left out or hinted at than what is included.

The book is not only a travel description of bygone and much-missed scenarios. It also deals with terrific humour with Fermor's interactions with locals, and his inevitable "being taken for a ride" experiences. I found the "Vienna" chapter especially funny.

It is a warm, good-humoured and balmy tonic for the soul. You do need to take time with it, but rest assured, your time will be abundantly rewarded.

GvW, literary correspondent, over and out!