A prodigality of marvels
A perfect collective noun for a mass of marvels. There are good reasons the first of Patrick Leigh Fermor's duo...
One for the microbe
A charming variant of 'one for the road' justifications for one more drink. May you enjoy all the optimism, vigour...
Battle-haunted fens
Having spent many teenage summer holidays in the fens of England, this struck me, though I never heard or saw...
A table laid by ravens
Leigh Fermor describes the unexpected hospitality and kindness encountered in the Mani after having been warned that his throat would...
Spreading like ink across blotting paper
This image is used by Leigh Fermor to describe the speed and flow of Slavs into a region. Although I...
Cloud-compelling Zeus
Aha, I have been importuning the wrong gods. It is Zeus who compels the clouds and gives us rain, which...
Portable, durable bread
This twice-baked Greek bread is known for its durability, keeping for months. The trick seems to be to know how...
Cormorant-haunted castle
An abandoned fortress, occupied only by cormorants. No wonder, the human inhabitants probably fled an atmosphere described as the 'architecture...
Light-skinned Yemenite
This describes Leigh Fermor's first incursion into the Mani, after having been warned by the rest of Greece that going...
An unfolding plan
How do you convey the speed and completeness of a fast unfolding plan? I enjoyed this image of a Japanese...
Wave-beaten cape
A rough and remote coastal path, leading to the cave of Charon in a legend recounted by Leigh Fermor. It...
High-perched asylum
In his acknowledgements, Leigh Fermor thanks a number of people for 'kindness and haven during restless literary displacements', and it...
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