A revelatory collection of letters written by the author of The Broken Road.

Handsome, spirited and erudite, Patrick Leigh Fermor was a war hero and one of the greatest travel writers of his generation. He was also a spectacularly gifted friend.

The letters in this collection span almost seventy years, the first written ten days before Paddy's twenty-fifth birthday, the last when he was ninety-four. His correspondents include Deborah Devonshire, Ann Fleming, Nancy Mitford, Lawrence Durrell, Diana Cooper and his lifelong companion, Joan Rayner; he wrote his first letter to her in his cell at the monastery Saint Wandrille, the setting for his reflections on monastic life in A Time to Keep Silence. His letters exhibit many of his most engaging characteristics: his zest for life, his unending curiosity, his lyrical descriptive powers, his love of language, his exuberance and his tendency to get into scrapes - particularly when drinking and, quite separately, driving.

Here are plenty of extraordinary stories: the hunt for Byron's slippers in one of the remotest regions of Greece; an ignominious dismissal from Somerset Maugham's Villa Mauresque; hiding behind a bush to dub Dirk Bogarde into Greek during the shooting of Ill Met by Moonlight, the film based on the story of General Kreipe's abduction; his extensive travels. Some letters contain glimpses of the great and the good, while others are included purely for the joy of the jokes.

"Hugely entertaining, funny and occasionally moving . . . edited meticulously and brilliantly" - Observer

"Zest, verbal finesse, almost pristine receptivity and a richly informed cultural and historical consciousness make these letters, even when the erosions of time and illness shadow them, irresistibly exhilarating" - Sunday Times

"Adam Sisman is a model editor . . . Reading these letters is like gobbling down a tray of exotically filled chocolates, with no horrible orange creams to put you off" - Literary Review

"Here is a veritable feast for fans of Paddy Leigh Fermor . . . Sisman has done a tremendous job selecting and editing this treasure-trove of letters" - The Spectator

"Glorious, heady stuff . . . judiciously edited by Adam Sisman" - Evening Standard

"Adam Sisman's selection of Patrick Leigh Fermor's letters is entirely admirable . . . an unmissable feast" - Daily Telegraph

"Superbly edited . . . To read these letters and their superb footnotes is to walk with some of the great ghosts of 20th century literature" - Oldie

"A feast of adventure, gossip and flirtation" - The Spectator

"It remains an outright pleasure to be admitted to the company of such a man. This is one of those books that make you feel a little bereft when you finish it" - Catholic Herald

"A fascinating and engaging sort of autobiography full of the charm found in his travel writings. Wonderful to dip into" - Guardian Review