Thorn-studded bats
No, this isn't a description of a gothic night-flight of vampiric birds, he is referring rather to the big, flat...
Yataghan-wielding chieftains
At least when Leigh Fermor first travelled to Mani in the Peloponnese, its inhabitants had a fearsome reputation among Greeks,...
Skull-like blankness
A blindingly white description of a sun-parched landscape. Elsewhere Leigh Fermor conjures another type of blankness, that of a face,...
Champagne-bottle shoulders
What a charming if old-fashioned sounding description of sloping beauty, in this case referring to voluptuous Europa. And 'callipygous' describes...
Shqip-speaking Atticans
Intrigued by this curious linguistic geographic cocktail, I have learned that Shqip is Albanian and Sfax is a city in...
Fate-spinning crones
Elsewhere Leigh Fermor talks of 'black-coiffed crones'. Here they are 'fate-spinning', giving a terrifying and timeless aspect to them, reinforced...
Seldom-failing blessings
A lasting impression from Leigh Fermor's Mani is inescapable heat, from which any respite is a gift. I also like...
Flask-wielding host
Despite the manifest hospitality, the flask-wielding host sounds like a walking health hazard. However, by the time you succumb to...
Ankle-snapping boulders
Another vivid image of this lunar landscape, boulders both too big and too small to step on, instead being the...
Secret-seeming combe
'Secret-seeming' promises quiet landings of a boat shingling onto a beach, or morning departures. 'Combe' is curious in the context...
A load of old bull
Here Patrick Leigh Fermor tests the veracity of a much touted myth about Maniots in the Peloponnese being bull wrestlers. ...
Purple-carpeted street
This is an Arcadian dream of Leigh Ferro's, drawing copiously on his outrageously learned grasp of Byzantine aristocratic titles and...
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