A time of gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor

This beloved account about an intrepid young Englishman on the first leg of his walk from London to Constantinople is simply one of the best works of travel literature ever written.

At the age of eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor
set off from the heart of London on an epic journey-to walk to Constantinople.
A Time of Gifts is the rich account of his adventures as far as Hungary,
after which Between the Woods and the Water continues the story to the Iron Gates that divide the Carpathian and
Balkan mountains. Acclaimed for its sweep and
intelligence, Leigh
Fermor's book explores a remarkable moment in time. Hitler
has just
come to power but war is still ahead, as he walks through a Europe soon
to be forever changed-through the Lowlands to Mitteleuropa, to Teutonic
and
Slav heartlands, through the baroque remains of the Holy Roman
Empire; up the Rhine,
and down to the Danube.

At once a memoir of coming-of-age,
an account of a journey, and a dazzling exposition of the English language, A
Time of Gifts is also a portrait of a continent already showing ominous signs
of the holocaust to come.