Patrick Leigh Fermor
A friend recently brought me a copy of A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor. This is the fifth book I have read by Fermor who is arguably the finest travel writer in English today. The book is the story of his time spent in three monasteries and his thoughts on monastic life & history. He has written two books about his pre World War II walk across Europe which have become classics of their kind. He also served in the British Army in the Second World War and was part of a partisan team which kidnapped the commanding German General on the island of Crete and brought him to Egypt for interrogation. He is a fascinating man and the subject of an excellent article from our magazine database: An Englishman Abroad. My friend also recommended an article in the current edition (January 17, 2008) about Fermor's monastic book in The New York Review of Books which we subscribe to at Danbury Library and which has articles by Updike, Garry Wills and Hilary Mantel. Happy Reading!