A Time of Gifts : On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube

With a Foreword by Jan Morris

In 1933, at the age of eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor embarked on his 'great trudge,' a year-long journey on foot from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul. Three decades later, he penned A Time of Gifts, a sparklingly original account of the first leg of this youthful adventure.

Journey Highlights:

• Alone, equipped with just a rucksack and a small allowance
• Traversed the Low Countries, the Rhine, Germany, the Danube, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary

Hailed as a masterpiece, A Time of Gifts is more than a coming-of-age memoir. It offers a rich and compelling portrait of a continent — a Europe of resplendent domes, monasteries, great rivers, and grand cities — on the brink of transformation, soon to be reshaped by war, modernization, and profound social change.

"Rightly considered to be among the most beautiful travel books in the language" — Independent