Travel Europe Books

Editorial Reviews

Review
“There is only one complaint I can think of making about Patrick Leigh Fermor’s books: They appear too seldom. When they do appear, they offer that kindest of pleasures open to a reviewer–the chance of unqualified praise.” –The New York Times

“Mani and Roumeli: two of the best travel books of the century.”– Financial Times

“…Mani and Roumeli remain extraordinarily engaging books. This is partly thanks to Leigh Fermor’s ability to turn an insight into a telling phrase …and partly thanks to his capacity to weave a compelling story out of sometimes unpromising material. One of the best tales of all is the hilarious digression in Roumeli on the attempted recovery of a pair of Byron’s slippers from a man in Missolonghi, on behalf of Byron’s very odd great-granddaughter Lady Wentworth…When you see through all the nonsense about Hellenic continuity, there is, underneath, a much more nuanced account of the ambivalences of modern Greece, its people and its myths (its own myths about itself and us, as much as our myths about it).”–Mary Beard, The London Review of Books

Praise for Patrick Leigh Fermor:
"[O]ne of the greatest travel writers of all time”–The Sunday Times

“[A] unique mixture of hero, historian, traveler and writer; the last and the greatest of a generation whose like we won’t see again.”–Geographical

“The finest traveling companion we could ever have . . . His head is stocked with enough cultural lore and poetic fancy to make every league an adventure.” –Evening Standard

Roumeli is not to be found on present-day maps. It is the name once given to northern Greece—stretching from the Bosporus to the Adriatic and from Macedonia to the Gulf of Corinth, a name that evokes a world where the present is inseparably bound up with the past.

Roumeli describes Patrick Leigh Fermor’s wanderings in and around this mysterious and yet very real region. He takes us with him among Sarakatsan shepherds, to the monasteries of Meteora and the villages of Krakora, and on a mission to track down a pair of Byron’s slippers at Missolonghi. As he does, he brings to light the inherent conflicts of the Greek inheritance—the tenuous links to the classical and Byzantine heritage, the legacy of Ottoman domination—along with an underlying, even older world, traces of which Leigh Fermor finds in the hills and mountains and along stretches of barely explored coast.

Roumeli is a companion volume to Patrick Leigh Fermor’s famous Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese.

Order Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece (New York Review Books Classics): Patrick Leigh Fermor, Patricia Storace form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Tennant, a London-based author (Sylvia and Ted), offers a delightful memoir of the years she spent visiting her parents’ home on the Greek island of Corfu. During a vacation, Tennant’s parents, then in late middle-age, became captivated by a remote area on the West Coast of the island. They bought a parcel of land above the bay where Odysseus is said to have been shipwrecked and built Rovinia, a house inaccessible by road; during the winters, rough waters made it impossible to reach the nearest harbor by boat. But isolation was precisely what her mother and father craved. Originally Rovinia was conceived as a vacation home, but in 1965, Tennant’s parents gave up their London home and moved to Corfu permanently. Tennant details the problems with the actual construction of the house and the difficulties in securing an adequate water supply. As a frequent visitor, Tennant had her own room, and she came to know the island intimately. She eloquently renders the stark beauty of the landscape, the seductive, treacherous sea, the delicious cuisine (the family employed a local cook) and her family’s friendships with local residents whose customs the newcomers came to understand and respect. Steeped in myth, Corfu remained virtually untouched for generations. On later visits, Tennant observed the changes wrought by the Greek military coup and increased tourism. Tennant’s father died on Corfu in 1983, but Rovinia is still a beloved refuge for family members. This account of an alternative lifestyle undertaken before modern pop culture had reached all corners of the earth will appeal to travelers, expatriates and their admirers. Photos not seen by PW.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
How the popular novelist’s parents built a house in Rovinia, above the bay in Corfu where Ulysses was reputedly shipwrecked.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Order A House in Corfu: A Family’s Sojourn in Greece: Emma Tennant form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Review
A true-life vacation exploding with dialogue and educational snippets! This book is rich in detail, spun by a masterful storyteller with full command of his subject. –Marlin Keesler, author of Our Life on the Run: A Story of Running 50 Marathons in 50 States: A Family Quest

With an insider s perspective, Wolfgang Schoellkopf brings the reader into ancient-day Greece through a modern perspective. –Scott M. Davis M.D., author of Living Jonathan’s Life

TIME TRAVEL TO ANCIENT GREECE. It is most curious to a precocious teen named Julia how her grandfather, affectionately nicknamed Baba, can take her back to an ancient civilization without a time machine. After all, while most travel in typical tourist fashion, few get the unique perspective of a multi-generational experience. On an extended excursion to Greece, the duo uses their imagination, the elder s immense knowledge and passion, and the country s art and artifacts to recreate what the European hub must have looked and felt like for someone who lived during the birth of philosophy, the pinnacle of dramatic plays and the inception of the Olympic games. Literally no stone is overlooked what might appear to the casual visitor to be a pile of rocks turned into an ancient stadium, building or shrine brimming with life for Julia and her grandfather. However, not all is idyllic in ancient Greece, the duo discovers in their tour.

Order Julia in Hellas: Wolfgang Schoellkopf form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Make the most of your trip with AA’s best selling pocket guide series, up to date and easy to use, the series has been revamped to include an atlas section and additional maps. Sporting the new, distinctive AA World Travel Guide series cover design; these new editions will ensure the series remains as popular as ever. The guides are divided into five easy to use colour coded sections: Viewing: The authors introduction to the destination, including the ten ‘must do’s’. Top Ten: The authors Top Ten places to visit. What to See: Alphabetical listings of places to visit. Where to: Detailed listings guiding you where to eat, stay and shop. Practical Matters: Quick reference travel information.

Order AA Essential Corfu (AA Essential Guide) form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Make the most of your trip with AA’s TwinPack map and guide series. Fully revised and updated, with essential information on what to do and where to go, the TwinPacks have been created specifically for the short break visitor and now feature stylish, new AA World Travel Guide design covers. The series has unrivalled coverage of popular island and regional destinations, with the best sites identified to help visitors with only a little time. Practical advice is given combined with traveller’s tips and details on the destinations history, culture and people. Accompanying the guide is an indispensable island regional map, both contained within a plastic wallet ensuring that you never lose your way.

Order AA TwinPack Corfu (AA TwinPack Guides) form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

This guide to Corfu features 17 itineraries, exploring the highlights of this popular holiday destination. Tours range from walking tours of historic Kerkyra (Corfu Town) to boat trips to secluded beaches for scuba diving. Also included is an essay revealing the history and culture of the island, ideas on shopping, eating out and nightlife, and detailed practical information. Dozens of photographs, eight interior maps and a detailed pullout map are also featured in the guide.

Order Corfu Insight Pocket Guide form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

This book contains 17 itineraries exploring the highlights of this popular holiday destination. Tours range from walking tours of historic Kerkyra (Corfu Town) to boat trips to secluded beaches for scuba diving. Also includes an essay revealing the history and culture of the island, ideas on shopping, eating out and nightlife, and detailed practical information. Plus dozens of top-notch photographs, eight interior maps and a detailed pullout map.

Order Corfu Insight Pocket Guide form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Packed with stunning photographs, easy-to-use maps, and all the information you really need to get the most from your visit! In this compact guide, our writers help you plan itineraries for short and longer stays. Complete with must-see sights on and off the beaten track as well as current hotel and restaurant recommendations. And the convenient size of the guide allows you to take it along in your pocket or handbag. Take the world in your pocket next time and travel with this handy Berlitz guide. Author: Paul Murphy

Order Corfu Pocket Guide, 4th Edition (Berlitz Pocket Guides): Inc. Berlitz International form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

Practical, informative and user-friendly, the Globetrotter Travel Pack to Corfu highlights the major places of interest, describing their principal attractions and offering sound suggestions on where to tour, stay, eat, shop and relax. This guide is ideal for the first-time visitor and includes over 30 full color area maps, town plans and locator maps, over 80 full color photographs and a full size pull out map.

From the Back Cover
Practical, informative and user-friendly, the Globetrotter Travel Pack to Corfu highlights the major places of interest, describing their principal attractions and offering sound suggestions on where to tour, stay, eat, shop and relax. This guide is ideal for the first-time visitor and includes over 30 full color area maps, town plans and locator maps, over 80 full color photographs and a full size pull out map. (5 x 7, 128 pages, maps, color photos, pull out travel map)

Order Corfu Travel Pack: Globetrotter form Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Employing a similar formula to that of his last book, Seasons in Basilicata, Yeadon recounts the year—2004, arranged by season—he spent with his wife, Anne, on Harris, a small island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland famous for its remote beauty and home-loomed tweed. With a weave of islanders’ loquacious stories and rural gossip into an overview of Hebridean history and the couple’s own adventures exploring the area, this memoir is perfect for anyone considering a trip to the Outer Hebrides or tracing their ancestors back to its craggy coasts. Fans of the famous Harris Tweed will also find lots of tidbits about the history and current state of this ancient textile and the craft that creates it, and anyone interested in age-old customs waning in the world’s hinterlands will find the island’s contradictions poignant. At times, the book feels like that familiar traveler’s sensation of having arrived home to find that the panoramic snapshot excitedly clicked in an exuberant moment of discovery is just a bit too small or personal. Yet, Yeadon hits high notes recounting history-laden conversations with locals who all have the Gaelic gift of gab, creating an altogether enjoyable read full of unique and likable people. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
–This text refers to the

Hardcover
edition.

The Outer Hebrides of Scotland epitomize the evocative beauty and remoteness of island life. The most dramatic of all the Hebrides is Harris, a tiny island formed from the oldest rocks on earth, a breathtaking landscape of soaring mountains, wild lunarlike moors, and vast Caribbean-hued beaches. This is where local crofters weave the legendary Harris Tweed—a hardy cloth reflecting the strength, durability, and integrity of the life there.

In Seasons on Harris, David Yeadon, “one of our best travel writers” (The Bloomsbury Review), captures, through elegant words and line drawings, life on Harris—the people, their folkways and humor, and their centuries-old Norse and Celtic traditions of crofting and fishing. Here Gaelic is still spoken in its purest form, music and poetry ceilidh evenings flourish in the local pubs, and Sabbath Sundays are observed with Calvinistic strictness. Yeadon’s book makes us care deeply about these proud islanders, their folklore, their history, their challenges, and the imperiled future of their traditional island life and beloved tweed.

Order Seasons on Harris: A Year in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides: David Yeadon form Amazon.