Rough-hewn peninsulars
A rugged description of all-enduring peasants who survive in a brutal landscape.
'The three young fruiterers ... seemed queerly townish...
Rock-strewn surface
Two ideas were imprinted on my mind in Leigh Fermor's description of the Mani landscape - unremitting heat and unforgiving...
High-perched asylum
In his acknowledgements, Leigh Fermor thanks a number of people for 'kindness and haven during restless literary displacements', and it...
Light-skinned Yemenite
This describes Leigh Fermor's first incursion into the Mani, after having been warned by the rest of Greece that going...
Holly-patterned ribbon
This quotation, and its festive triologism, haunts me for the closing sentence which yields the book's loving title: The time...
Light-hearted colours
What a delightful way to describe a palette of colours: light-hearted. What hues would it include? Sky blue, dancing fuchsia,...
Ouzo-swilling fisherman
Leigh Fermor at one point starts day-dreaming he has discovered the rightful Emperor of Byzantium in the form of an...
Horse-taming Argos
Leigh Fermor echoes the hundreds of Homeric triologisms, many attributing this or that characteristic to one or another Greek city...
Heat as strong as a curse
Leigh Fermor finds many ways to convey the unforgiving heat and light of the sun in the...
Of detonating ideas
Does that ever happen to you? That an idea detonates over your head, shooting up like a colossal cartoon exclamation...
Demon-king entrance
This sounded like something out of a classical Chinese opera until I realized it was describing my forebears. Don't worry,...
Many-legended island
Are those legends still alive or did they die with the war, or with the people who told them? And...
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