Saturday, October 20, 2012

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR: A LIFE





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.


From We Love This Book

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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