Roumeli

There is only one complaint I can think of making about Patrick Leigh Fermor's books: They appear too seldom. When they do appear, they offer that kindest of pleasures open to a reviewer-the chance of unqualified praise. - The New York Times <br><br> Mani and Roumeli two of the best travel books of the century. - Financial Times <br><br> . ..Mani and Roumeli remain extraordinarily engaging books. This is partly thanks to Leigh Fermor's ability to turn an insight into a telling phrase ...and partly thanks to his capacity to weave a compelling story out of sometimes unpromising material. One of the best tales of all is the hilarious digression in Roumeli on the attempted recovery of a pair of Byron's slippers from a man in Missolonghi, on behalf of Byron's very odd great-granddaughter Lady Wentworth...When you see through all the nonsense about Hellenic continuity, there is, underneath, a much more nuanced account of the ambivalences of modern Greece, its people and its myths (its own myths about itself and us, as much as our myths about it). -Mary Beard, The London Review of Books <br><br><br>Praise for Patrick Leigh Fermor: <br> [O]ne of the greatest travel writers of all time - The Sunday Times <br><br> [A] unique mixture of hero, historian, traveler and writer; the last and the greatest of a generation whose like we won't see again. - Geographical <br><br> The finest traveling companion we could ever have . . . His head is stocked with enough cultural lore and poetic fancy to make every league an adventure. - Evening Standard