Patrick Leigh Fermor- MY HERO!

"To meet, Leigh Fermor may still have the speech patterns and formal manners of a British officer of a previous generation; but on the page he is a soaring prose virtuoso with hardly a single living equal."

-William Dalrymple, The Guardian

I think Patrick Leigh Fermor may be one the most important people that has ever, literally, walked the face of the earth. If you don't travel than you don't find out who you are. If you go back two generations, I come mostly Italian peasant stock; people we don't really like to travel long distances. By nature Southern Italians are friendly and open yet suspicious, staying close to their respective towns and countryside. When Sophia Loren's equally beautiful mother, Romilda, won first place in a Greta Garbo lookalike contest, her family was so scared of her going to Hollywood for her prize winning screen test that she was forced to concede to the runner-up. They believed that the "Black Hand" that possibly had a part in Rudolph Valentino's shocking death, would be targeting all Italians from the Old World. The familiar is a guarantee of equanimity. And, apart from mother's grandmother who made nearly half a dozen trips between Calabria and the United States around the turn of he 20th century, I'm part of the first generation of my family to do any real extensive overseas travelling.

Yet, while I've travelled often, I've "Bilbo Bagginsed" it a great deal as well. In fact when I arrive somewhere on a journey I'd rather explore the street I'm staying on. Why, after already taking a flight, a train, a cab, unpacking and then getting settled would I get up go travelling again? That is precisely how I see the proverbial day trip. Even if the day trip is to a cathedral across town with the Magna Carte in it, I'm happier on the nearby high street at Boots testing shimmery blue eye liner. I get into adventures too though, like trudging through forests that incidentally lead to occult like landmarks or walking into Sawrey from Hawkshead. Not quite seven years in Tibet or even seven days in Euro Disney but that's just me!

Paddy Fermor embodies that spirit of the happy wanderer yet he also took his time. I think that is why he eschews the title of "Britain's greatest living travel writer" although he alone is. The same age as my own grandfather, a jaw dropping 94 years young and due to turn 95 on the of 11th February, he resides in Mani, Southern Greece, in a home he built mostly himself where he can look out over the Aegean Sea.

Last spring when I was pregnant and could not sleep, I watched a splendid programme on the BBC all about Paddy and his splendid life. Do read up on him if he is new to you as he is without equal.


Original Tribute by Finger Style Guitar Man