Life in Letters, A by Patrick Leigh Fermor, Adam Sisman (Editor); 2016. Softcover. (New York Review Books) (CO)

Handsome, spirited, and well-read, Patrick Leigh Fermor was a war hero and one of the greatest travel writers of his generation. He was also a wonderful friend. Spanning over seventy years, from ten days before Leigh Fermor's twenty-fifth birthday to his ninety-fourth year, the letters collected here are a testament to his remarkable life. His correspondents include Deborah Devonshire, Nancy Mitford, Lawrence Durrell, Diana Cooper, and his lifelong companion, Joan Rayner. As in his travel memoirs, Leigh Fermor's letters convey the writer's insatiable lust for life, love of language, and appetite for adventure. Here, he records stories about hunting for Byron's slippers in remote Greece and being dismissed from Somerset Maugham's villa. Each letter radiates warmth and each letter is entertaining, just like Leigh Fermor himself.