Between the Woods and the Water

Patrick Leigh Fermor (1979)
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THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

Between the Woods and the Water is the second book in a three volume travel writing series covering Patrick Leigh Fermor’s epic journey in 1933-1934 as an eighteen year old traveling by foot from Holland to Constantinople. The opening of this book takes off right from where the first book, A Time of Gifts (1977), ends, on a bridge leaving Czechoslovakia and crossing to Hungary.  He makes his way on foot to Prague and Budapest, then managing to borrow a horse to carry him across the Great Hungarian Plain.  He crossed the border into Transylvania, making his way to reach the Iron Gates, a gorge on the Danube River on the border of Yugoslavia and Romania.  We recommend reading A Time of Gifts first, but Leigh Fermor's writing here is just as enthralling, with rich descriptions of remote villages, gypsy camps, and a beautiful countryside.​
Click here to see reviews and prices for this book on Amazon.

OTHER A5 RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS - PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR

Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) was a British travel writer, scholar, and soldier, once described by a BBC journalist as a blend of Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Graham Greene.  He is probably most famous for his trilogy of books describing his journey in 1993 on foot across Europe as an eighteen-year-old, and for his experience fighting in Greece in World War II.  His work influenced many future writers.  To learn more about Patrick Leigh Fermor, click here.
book cover of A Time of Gifts
#1 in the trilogy
book cover of The Broken Road
#3 in the trilogy

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GREAT QUOTES FROM BETWEEN THE WOOD AND THE WATER

“Dropping toward the watershed, the sun filled the place with evening light and kindled the windows and the western flanks of cupolas and steeples and many belfries, darkening the eastern walls with shadow; and as we gazed, one of them began to strike the hour and another took up the challenge, followed by a third and soon enormous tonnages of sectarian bronze were tolling their ancient rivalries into the dusk.” 

INTERESTING LINKS:

  • Read Dominic Green's review of Between the Woods and the Water, written for the Wall Street Journal.
  • ​The famed travel writer Jan Morris is a fan of Leigh Fermor's work, and she wrote the introduction to this book.  Click here to learn more about Jan Morris.