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A Time of Gifts

On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube

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A Time of Gifts

By: Patrick Leigh Fermor
Narrated by: Crispin Redman
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About this listen

In 1933, at the age of 18, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on an extraordinary journey by foot - from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the first volume in a trilogy recounting the trip, and takes the listener with him as far as Hungary.

It is a book of compelling glimpses - not only of the events that were curdling Europe at that time, but also of its resplendent domes and monasteries, its great rivers, the sun on the Bavarian snow, the storks and frogs, the hospitable burgomasters who welcomed him, and that world's grandeurs and courtesies. His powers of recollection have astonishing sweep and verve, and the scope is majestic.

©1977 The estate of Patrick Leigh Fermor (P)2014 Hodder & Stoughton Adventure Travel Adventure Hungary

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Critic reviews

"Nothing short of a masterpiece" (Jan Morris)
"Not only is the journey one of physical adventure but of cultural awakening. Architecture, art, genealogy, quirks of history and language are all devoured - and here passed on - with a gusto uniquely his" (Colin Thubron, Sunday Telegraph)
"Rightly considered to be among the most beautiful travel books in the language" ( Independent)
All stars
Most relevant  
I enjoyed this very much though the numerous branchings into history, literature, art and culture were sometimes difficult to place in context. On this level there would have been an advantage in having the text in front of me so I could reference details more readily.

The writing is excellent and the narration fine, and the story brings home a style of travel -- an admirable self-sufficiency aided by Fate and strangers -- that is perhaps much harder to consider in this century.

A Passionate Account of Great Depth

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I found that once I had got past the initial cynicism that invariably occurs everytime I read memoirs by people who seem able to recall every single detail of events that occurred ages ago and stopped wondering how they could have remembered it all (particularly with diaries being lost, copious quantities of drink consumed, etc.!) and simply concentrated on the story he was telling, this made a wonderful account of events that could, and possibly did, more-or-less take place in an era that is now, quite literally, history. Basically, it helped to adopt the journalistic maxim of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story.

As someone whom my art historian friend would quite rightly describe as a 'complete intellectual peasant' I did find the lengthy musings on schools of painting, architectural styles and linguistic derivations as rather irritating 'fillers' that interrupted an otherwise great, and frequently funny, story and found the idea of an 18-year fixating on whether or not Shakespeare's reference to 'the coast of Bohemia' was geographically and historically accurate somewhat bizarre - didn't he have other things to worry about? - but these were minor 'bumps in the road' compared to the overall enjoyment I derived. In fact, approaching the end of this book it was an easy decision to buy the next two books in the trilogy.

Much of the credit for my enjoyment must go to the wonderful narration of Crispin Redman - I only wish I could give him 10 stars instead of 5. What an absolutely wonderful case he makes for audible books. If there is some way by which my appreciation of his performance could be passed-on I would be delighted.

Go Along For The Ride

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This book really captures the naivety of a young man on an extraordinarily adventure which at his age and experience would be inconceivable today, especially with such little money. I travelled on pretty much the same route to Budapest (by train) from London and am amazed at how well this book captures the cities, especially Vienna. It was like reliving my travels! Needless to say I'll be downloading the next book.

Enthralling book if you love history and adventure

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In 'A Time Of Gifts' PLF, as in the other two books of this trilogy, manages to combine the youthful energy and enthusiasm of his younger self, with the erudition and vast arstistic, geographic and historical knowlege of his elder self. The result of this heady mix is PLF's own brand of hefty and vivid descriptions of his exciting, and didactic, secular pilgrimage across Europe at the age of 18.

PLF is a treasure trove of brilliance

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I wondered initially if the very full and wordy descriptions might become a little heavy as the book went on, but in fact I never tired of them and the effect of the descriptive passages in the audiobook was to create wonderful mental images of the places and events. It succeeded in drawing me in so that I could hear the crunch of the snow underfoot, visualise the people and feel the relief of a night spent in a proper bed in the depths of winter. There were many very funny moments, and many literary allusions not all of which I was quite up to, but it was satisfying when the penny dropped. The vocabulary is wonderful and reminds you of how much of our language we do not bother to use. His obvious fascination for the origins of things - words, peoples, philosophies, architecture, art - is absolutely gripping. He is man who needs to categorise and understand, and I sympathise with him (though he was rather more educated on all of these things at 18 than most of us would be today - was that hindsight?) This has risen to the top of my favourite book list and I know I will come back to it in the future. BUT - I have docked Crispin Redman one star for the performance because of a) the woeful number of mis-pronunciations of ENGLISH words - "gun-wailes" being one of the worst b) his annoying accidents with German which the producers should have been on top of and which made several passages incapable of interpretation and c) his really annoying habit of dropping his "g" at the end of words ending in "ing". For an audiobook all these things are important. But apart from these things his narration was excellent.

Fabulous

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Any additional comments?

Wonderful travelogue of a pre-war Europe. Another reviewer has noted the tendency of PLF to break off into discursions on abstruse subjects from time to time; unlike that reviewer, I wholly enjoyed these trips into history, art, architecture and what feels like a hundred other subjects. It seems hard to credit that a 19 year-old could be quite so well versed in classics, history and dozens of other topics as PLF was, particularly given his school record, but perhaps I'm being too quick to judge by modern standards. Crispin Redman is the perfect narrator, catching the character of the man without alienating him from us, which would have been easy to do, and acts, rather than reads, the book.

Finished this afternoon and the next volume is already downloaded ready for tomorrow. i can't wait.

Superb

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Capturing the time and the place wonderfully.
Patrick Leigh Fermor deserves his reputation as a travel writer of note.
I will definitely be reading the other two volumes of his travels.

Beautifully evocative

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Absorbing account of Patrick's trek across five countries in Europe including Germany and the rumbling emergence of Nazism. Excellent narration.

sunrise of Nazism

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I love the book but the reader’s delivery ruins it. At points the text itself can be a little florid and the delivery style really exacerbates this - too theatrical, too camp… exhausting!

Great book spoiled by a poor reading

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Would you try another book written by Patrick Leigh Fermor or narrated by Crispin Redman?

I am tempted to read the sequel rather than listen to the audio, which I found rather rushed.

What did you like best about this story?

The feeling of landscape and the times of the period between the wars. People's values and way of life are very well captured.

What three words best describe Crispin Redman’s performance?

Sounds like JustAMinute. It felt like he was racing not to hesitate, deviate from the subject or otherwise be caught out by Nicholas Parsons. I suppose there are a lot of words to read, but I found the delivery tiring after a while.

Was A Time of Gifts worth the listening time?

Yes I did enjoy it, but I am not sure about Listening to the sequel.

Maybe better to read this at leisure

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