On writing and writers

Sorting through some old internet bookmarks today I came across this obituary of Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor who died three years ago tomorrow. I knew nothing about him at the time but he sounded fascinating and the article was a tribute from Jan Morris another writer, one of west Wales’ literary icons, whose work I have often admired.

Anyway some time passed and I forgot all about him until a friend lent me copies of his two books (A Time of Gifts, 1977 and Between the Woods and the Water,1987) describing his journey on foot across Europe in the 1930s. I was greatly impressed by his writing (and his character) and that he actually wrote the books more than forty years after the event. As chance would have it a few weeks after reading the second volume I went on holiday to the place where the second book ends. In a stretch of the Danube that forms the border between Romania and Serbia. He stayed on an island with some shepherds smoking hookahs, drinking arak and trying to understand their local dialects (which, together with their clothing style, he assumed suggested that they were of Turkish origin). We saw no sign of them on our travels, but the photos below show how majestic the gorge we travelled along was (I think it is the deepest and/or widest in Europe, but don't hold me to that).

Sadly those islands no longer exist. They were flooded as part of a hydroelectric dam project many decades ago. But it was eerie to be cycling along in Patrick Leigh’s footsteps (and meeting some people who - without knowing it were retracing his journey from London to Istanbul – although in this case on bicycle). A few weeks ago the friend who had sent me those books sent me a note comparing my travel writings in Cambodia to Patrick Leigh Fermour’s. It was a moment of extreme flattery: one of the greatest complements that has ever been paid to me. I think it was largely underserved as I neither spoke the language of any of the local people nor did I have any idea about how to interpret their architecture, customs or art. Nonetheless it did encourage me to keep writing. There are a few more instalments of my Portugese travels to follow on this blog soon. I had a particularly creative writing week while I was there (now the difficulty is in maintaining that creativity). Partly because I was seeing new things (and had insiders to explain the background), partly because there was no admin or deadlines to deal with (mercifully I was only called upon to work a day and a half of the eight I was away) and I didn’t have 24 hour access to Facebook and Wordscraper. All obstacles to creativity.

I do recommend readers to hunt out those two books of Patrick Leigh Fermour. I think I am going to look out for some more.