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

Sue says about A Time of Gifts "A truly inspiring example of travel writing and memoir combined, about Fermor’s journey on foot across Europe in 1933. I was blown away by the writing and went on to read the other two parts of the trilogy. Incredible."

In 1933, aged eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on his 'great trudge', a year-long journey by foot from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul. Three decades later he wrote A Time of Gifts, the sparklingly original account of the first part of this youthful adventure. Alone, carrying only a rucksack and a small allowance, he travelled through the Low Countries, up the Rhine, through Germany, down the Danube, through Austria and Czechoslovakia, and as far as Hungary.

Hailed as a masterpiece, A Time of Gifts is in part a coming-of-age memoir, but also a rich and compelling portrait of a continent that - despite its resplendent domes and monasteries, great rivers and grand cities - was soon to be swept away by war, modernisation and profound social change.

Author: Fermor, Patrick Leigh
Europe
Published on 16 July 2026 by John Murray Press (John Murray Publishers Ltd) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 384 pages, N/A
128 x 198 x 27 | 266g