Artemis Cooper on
writing the life of the journalist, war hero and author
Fermor was left by
his mother in rural Northamptonshire for the first four years of his life,
before an undistinguished schooling saw him abandon formal education at 18.
Filled with romantic notions of being a wandering writer and scholar in the
medieval tradition, he embarked on an epic walk across Europe from the
English Channel to Constantinople, equipped with little more than stout
boots, a rucksack, notebooks and charm. Starting in 1933, he befriended a
string of aristocrats, who passed him along their family connections across
Europe.
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The fantasy writer
on his new novel Red Country and envying George R R Martin
As a venomously
ambitious sociopath I burn with vengeful jealousy towards anyone successful
and George [R R Martin] is, without doubt, at the very top of the fantasy
tree. My jealousy was somewhat tempered by seeing how hard he was working at
a convention in Spain recently, where he must have signed a good few thousand
books over the three days. He's been working at it a long time, though, and
I've been a great admirer of his books since I first read them several years
ago, so I must grudgingly concede that he deserves the accolades.
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Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR: A LIFE
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