World renowned British travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, who kidnapped the Nazi military commander of occupied Crete in World War II, has died at age 96.
Leigh Fermor's books about life in Greece and travel across Europe and the Caribbean are regarded as some of the best travel books ever written. They include The Traveller's Tree and Between the Woods and the Water.
Impatient with school, Leigh Fermor set off as a teenager in 1933 across the English Channel to the Netherlands on what turned out to be a three-year trek to Istanbul on foot, horseback, train, and car.
Later, as a British military officer, he disguised himself as a shepherd on Crete and led an operation to capture the German commander of the Nazi occupied Greek island.
Leigh Fermor eventually settled in Greece, where his books about his beloved adopted country made him one of Greece's most admired citizens and unofficial ambassadors of Greek culture.
FROM ffa01:
ReplyDeleteRIP - I need to read his books.