{"product_id":"patrick-leigh-fermor-an-adventure-9781590176740","title":"Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure","description":"\u003cp\u003ePatrick Leigh Fermors enviably colorful life took off when in 1934  at the age of eighteen  he decided to walk across Europe. In just over a year he had trekked through nine countries and taught himself three languages  and his enthusiasm and curiosity for every kind of experience made him equally happy in caves or country houses  among shepherds or countesses.  At the outbreak of war he left his lover  Princess Balasha Cantacuzene  in Romania and returned to England to enlist. Commissioned into the Intelligence Corps  he became one of the handful of Allied officers supporting the Cretan resistance to the German occupation. In 1944 he commanded the Anglo-Cretan team that abducted General Heinrich Kreipe and spirited him away to Egypt.  A journey to the Caribbean  stays in monasteries  and explorations all over Greece provided the subjects for his first books. It was not until he and his wife had moved to southern Greece that he returned to his earliest walk. In these books  which took many years to write  he created a vision of a prewar Europe  which in its beauty and abundance has never been equaled.  Artemis Cooper has drawn on years of interviews and conversations with Leigh Fermor and his closest friends  and has had complete access to his archive. Her beautifully crafted biography portrays a man of extraordinary giftsno one wore their learning so playfully nor inspired such passionate friendship.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648096231477,"sku":"ByrdShop_159017674X","price":20.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781590176740.jpg?v=1781709341","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/patrick-leigh-fermor-an-adventure-9781590176740","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}