A Time Of Gifts

"A Time of Gifts" is regarded by many observers as one of the classics of travel literatureFact|date=October 2007. Written by Patrick Leigh Fermor and published in 1977 when he was 62, it is an account of the first part of the author's journey on foot across Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933/34.

"A Time of Gifts" recounts the journey as far as the Danube. The second volume, "Between the Woods and the Water" (published in 1986) begins with the author crossing the Mária Valéria bridge into Hungary and ends at the Iron Gate where the Danube formed the boundary between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Romania. A planned third volume, which would follow the author's journey to its completion in Constantinople, has not yet appeared.

The book's writing was assisted by the fortunate rediscovery of the author's diary of the journey, found many years later in a castle in Romania and returned to him.

Much of the charm of the book comes from the fusion of the immediacy and excitement of an eighteen year old boy's reactions to a great adventure with the retrospective reflections of the cultured and sophisticated man of the world that Leigh Fermor would become. The author could not have chosen a more exciting time to cross these lands. The Communists had not yet taken over the East, monarchies survived in the Balkans, and remnants of the old regime were to be seen in Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Hungary. In Germany, Hitler had just come to power, but the worst of his abuses were not yet in evidence.

The author has a firm grip on European history, culture and art, so the work is far more than a travelogue. He meets a fascinating array of people, from the inhabitants of workers hostels to down-on-their luck Austrian counts at home in their castles. He writes about how the landscapes he encountered and the human physical types were familiar from the Dutch and German masters.

The title is taken from a poem by Louis MacNeice. The book was the winner of the WH Smith Literary Award in 1978.