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Walking the Woods and the Water: In Patrick Leigh Fermor's Footsteps from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn
"Nick Hunt has written a glorious book, rich with insight and wit, about walking his way both across and into contemporary Europe. . . . So many memorable encounters with people and places! A book about gifts, modernity, endurance and landscape, it represents a fine addition to the literature of the leg."--Robert Macfarlane, award-winning travel writer, author of "The Wild Places" and "The Old Ways: A Journey On Foot"
"This moving and profoundly honest book sometimes brings a sense of unlimited freedom, sometimes joy, sometimes an extraordinary, dream-like dislocation: always accompanied by a dazzling sharpness of hearing and vision. I see now how that youthful walk informed so much of Paddy's style. Before setting out Hunt was going to write to Paddy. The letter was never written, and by the time he set off, Paddy was dead. How touched and fascinated he would have been to read this book."--Artemis Cooper, biographer of Patrick Leigh Fermor and co-editor of "The Broken Road"
In 1933, eighteen-year-old Patrick Leigh Fermor set out to chance and charm his way across Europe, "like a tramp, a pilgrim, or a wandering scholar." The books he later wrote about this walk, including "Between the Woods and the Water," are a half-remembered, half-reimagined journey through cultures now extinct and landscapes irrevocably altered by the traumas of the twentieth century.
Nick Hunt dreamed of following in Fermor's footsteps. Eighty years later he began his own "great trudge"--on foot all the way to Istanbul. He walked across eight countries, following two major rivers and crossing three mountain ranges. With only Fermor's books to guide him, he trekked some 2,500 miles from Holland to Turkey.
Why? For an old-fashioned adventure. To discover for himself what remained of hospitality, kindness to strangers, freedom, wildness, the unknown, the deeper currents of myth that still flow beneath Europe's surface. This is a story worthy of Fermor's own.
Nick Hunt is a travel writer, freelance journalist, fiction writer, and storyteller whose articles have appeared in the "Economist," the "Guardian," and other publications. He is also co-editor of "The Dark Mountain."
"This moving and profoundly honest book sometimes brings a sense of unlimited freedom, sometimes joy, sometimes an extraordinary, dream-like dislocation: always accompanied by a dazzling sharpness of hearing and vision. I see now how that youthful walk informed so much of Paddy's style. Before setting out Hunt was going to write to Paddy. The letter was never written, and by the time he set off, Paddy was dead. How touched and fascinated he would have been to read this book."--Artemis Cooper, biographer of Patrick Leigh Fermor and co-editor of "The Broken Road"
In 1933, eighteen-year-old Patrick Leigh Fermor set out to chance and charm his way across Europe, "like a tramp, a pilgrim, or a wandering scholar." The books he later wrote about this walk, including "Between the Woods and the Water," are a half-remembered, half-reimagined journey through cultures now extinct and landscapes irrevocably altered by the traumas of the twentieth century.
Nick Hunt dreamed of following in Fermor's footsteps. Eighty years later he began his own "great trudge"--on foot all the way to Istanbul. He walked across eight countries, following two major rivers and crossing three mountain ranges. With only Fermor's books to guide him, he trekked some 2,500 miles from Holland to Turkey.
Why? For an old-fashioned adventure. To discover for himself what remained of hospitality, kindness to strangers, freedom, wildness, the unknown, the deeper currents of myth that still flow beneath Europe's surface. This is a story worthy of Fermor's own.
Nick Hunt is a travel writer, freelance journalist, fiction writer, and storyteller whose articles have appeared in the "Economist," the "Guardian," and other publications. He is also co-editor of "The Dark Mountain."
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 20, 2014
48 people are currently reading
1074 people want to read
About the author
Nick Hunt
24 books104 followersNick Hunt has walked and written across much of Europe. His first book 'Walking the Woods and the Water' (Nicholas Brealey, 2014) was a finalist for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year. He also works as a contributor and editor for the Dark Mountain Project.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
July 17, 2018
My good friend Gordon Wilson gifted me this very good book. His timing was impeccable as I had an enforced and long flight between Brisbane and the UK and this made the hours fly and the mind wander. My heartfelt thanks to Gordon.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/8827...
Anyone who has read Patrick Leigh Fermors trilogy, see the link above, should enjoy this book on the condition they do not expect the author Nick Hunt to write as Fermor. Hunt has completed a journey and then written what can be described as a fan friendly homage to Fermors famous walk. I have enjoyed reading Hunts observation of the changed Europe. In one volume he has tried to keep to the original path and with that had to contend with modern obstacles such as motorways being in places they should not have been. The one thing I noticed was that there was still that element of human kindness towards the traveller. No matter where people are interested in people given the correct circumstances. And I wish it had been me that had made this homage. Nick Hunt has achieved what a few of us could only daydream about.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/8827...
Anyone who has read Patrick Leigh Fermors trilogy, see the link above, should enjoy this book on the condition they do not expect the author Nick Hunt to write as Fermor. Hunt has completed a journey and then written what can be described as a fan friendly homage to Fermors famous walk. I have enjoyed reading Hunts observation of the changed Europe. In one volume he has tried to keep to the original path and with that had to contend with modern obstacles such as motorways being in places they should not have been. The one thing I noticed was that there was still that element of human kindness towards the traveller. No matter where people are interested in people given the correct circumstances. And I wish it had been me that had made this homage. Nick Hunt has achieved what a few of us could only daydream about.
November 12, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed Patrick Leigh Fermor's original books relating to his walk from Holland to Istanbul 80 years ago. It is never easy to recreate something that happened some time ago and was well received in the main. Initially the book did not really grab me and the walk through Holland I found less than interesting. Approaching Bavaria Nick Hunt decides to use a bicycle for a while partly because his physical fitness to walk was not good. In practice the section relating to Bavaria actually got and held my attention - I enjoyed the piece and it felt it better reflected the approach of Patrick Leigh Fermor's original story. Certainly an issue here, in trying to recapture Paddy's original journey, is that the world, and life generally, has changed significantly in 80 years. Inevitably this is a modern version; the use of the Internet to arrange accommodation is an example of this.
As the walk progressed I became increasingly caught up in the journey. It was fascinating to see through Nick Hunt's eyes the things that have changed and sometimes why over the 80 years, and equally things that have stayed almost strangely the same. In the main this was more noticeable the further East the book was in Europe particularly. I found the writing became increasingly evocative both of Patrick Leigh Fermor's books and in its own right too. Probably a very good choice for Paddy's fans however equally good for those with an interest in stories from outlying parts of Europe. Visiting cities and truly remote places, with a fair amount of places in between, I did enjoy this narrative. Nick Hunt met fascinating people and had experiences enviable and unenviable but almost always interesting.
Note - I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
As the walk progressed I became increasingly caught up in the journey. It was fascinating to see through Nick Hunt's eyes the things that have changed and sometimes why over the 80 years, and equally things that have stayed almost strangely the same. In the main this was more noticeable the further East the book was in Europe particularly. I found the writing became increasingly evocative both of Patrick Leigh Fermor's books and in its own right too. Probably a very good choice for Paddy's fans however equally good for those with an interest in stories from outlying parts of Europe. Visiting cities and truly remote places, with a fair amount of places in between, I did enjoy this narrative. Nick Hunt met fascinating people and had experiences enviable and unenviable but almost always interesting.
Note - I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
August 8, 2015
Eight decades ago Patrick Leigh Fermor set out to walk across Europe from the Hook of Holland to the exotic and mysterious Constantinople. He was aiming to chance and charm his way across the lands, hoping to be the recipient of much human kindness. This great walk also gave us three great books, A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water and The Broken Road. Not only are these beautifully written books, but they show Europe and its people shortly before war would sweep across the land. He
Seventy-eight years to the day in December 2011, Nick Hunt steps onto a ferry to the Hook of Holland to follow in his footsteps, and to see what had changed in Europe since his predecessor forged the route. His walk would take him through eight countries: Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey only using Fermor’s first two books to guide him, and he would discover if the modern Europe was still hospital to wandering strangers.
What has changed though was the landscape, just off the ferry he heads to what he thinks is a spire of a church; turns out it is a mosque, and this is a microcosm of what has happened in post war Northern Europe when much was rebuilt and redeveloped after the decimation of the Second World War. Was there anything left from Fermor’s time? Halfway through Germany he finds it at an inn in Heidelberg. The Red Ox has managed to remain the same after all that time, serving the same beer and full of hunting trophies. He stays in the same room, as Fermor too, and gives him a direct link to the past. This part of Germany in the winter is cold, very cold, and Hunt starts to feel as Fermor did, the landscape becoming softened by snow with few pointers to the time he is walking.
The iron curtain has been parted for a number of years now, and beyond this line people become friendlier and welcoming. But some things never change; the underlying prejudices are still there between the swirling cultures of this region, resentments that will never fade. He meets people whose relatives met Fermor when he passed through, and notes the disappearance of the shepherds and the aristocrats from the region.
When Hunt did the walk, the final book in the series had not been published, so having ceremoniously dropped the first two books into the Danube and into the waters at the Iron Gates, he is completely alone to forge his own path through Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains before heading to the journeys end in Istanbul.
I think that Nick Hunt has managed to write a fitting tribute to the journey that Patrick Leigh Fermor made. The Europe that he discovers is different to the one that Fermor saw and experienced, but then there has been a lot of water under the bridge since. And yet there are echoes of the past, some landscapes were unaffected by war and development, and the only change has been the clothes and modern technology; Hunt relies on the site couch surfer to find overnight accommodation on his 2500 mile walk. It is a book that is worth reading, partly as he manages to convey a modern continent still undergoing political and social change, but mostly it is his journey across three mountain ranges, eight countries, collecting snippets of language and culture on the way. I hope that it bring others to tread the original books too, as they are now classics.
Seventy-eight years to the day in December 2011, Nick Hunt steps onto a ferry to the Hook of Holland to follow in his footsteps, and to see what had changed in Europe since his predecessor forged the route. His walk would take him through eight countries: Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey only using Fermor’s first two books to guide him, and he would discover if the modern Europe was still hospital to wandering strangers.
What has changed though was the landscape, just off the ferry he heads to what he thinks is a spire of a church; turns out it is a mosque, and this is a microcosm of what has happened in post war Northern Europe when much was rebuilt and redeveloped after the decimation of the Second World War. Was there anything left from Fermor’s time? Halfway through Germany he finds it at an inn in Heidelberg. The Red Ox has managed to remain the same after all that time, serving the same beer and full of hunting trophies. He stays in the same room, as Fermor too, and gives him a direct link to the past. This part of Germany in the winter is cold, very cold, and Hunt starts to feel as Fermor did, the landscape becoming softened by snow with few pointers to the time he is walking.
The iron curtain has been parted for a number of years now, and beyond this line people become friendlier and welcoming. But some things never change; the underlying prejudices are still there between the swirling cultures of this region, resentments that will never fade. He meets people whose relatives met Fermor when he passed through, and notes the disappearance of the shepherds and the aristocrats from the region.
When Hunt did the walk, the final book in the series had not been published, so having ceremoniously dropped the first two books into the Danube and into the waters at the Iron Gates, he is completely alone to forge his own path through Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains before heading to the journeys end in Istanbul.
I think that Nick Hunt has managed to write a fitting tribute to the journey that Patrick Leigh Fermor made. The Europe that he discovers is different to the one that Fermor saw and experienced, but then there has been a lot of water under the bridge since. And yet there are echoes of the past, some landscapes were unaffected by war and development, and the only change has been the clothes and modern technology; Hunt relies on the site couch surfer to find overnight accommodation on his 2500 mile walk. It is a book that is worth reading, partly as he manages to convey a modern continent still undergoing political and social change, but mostly it is his journey across three mountain ranges, eight countries, collecting snippets of language and culture on the way. I hope that it bring others to tread the original books too, as they are now classics.
August 8, 2021
Qui una volta era tutta campagna!
E' inevitabile che a 80 anni di distanza, dopo il passaggio della guerra, del nazismo, dell'unione sovietica, le cose siano un po' cambiate. Intere culture cancellate, biblioteche date alle fiamme, ville distrutte o trasformate in ospedali psichiatrici: di Fermor e del suo mondo non rimane nemmeno il ricordo. Anche il paesaggio, soprattutto nell'ovest, è radicalmente diverso: sentieri sono diventati strade, strade sono diventate autostrade e le squallide periferie urbane sono dilagate dove un tempo c'erano boschi e campagne. Anche il Danubio ha subito l'ingiuria delle numerose dighe che ne hanno addomesticato la corrente e le coste della Bulgaria sul Mar Nero, sono cannibalizzate dal turismo.
La prima parte del libro l'ho trovata un po' fredda e non molto interessante. Possibile che di Salisburgo abbia trovato da parlare solo dei mitici cioccolatini di Mozart e dell'abbigliamento degli abitanti? Anche di Vienna, dove si ferma qualche giorno con la fidanzata, pare che parli con un certo fastidio. Di München la cosa più notevole è la Hofbräuhaus, i bavaresi sembrano tutti allegri sbevazzoni vestiti di cuoio. Poi finalmente entra in Slovacchia, e da lì in poi diventa più vivo e interessante, il paesaggio meno violentato, anche gli incontri più vivaci, nonostante l'URSS sia passata sopra persone e culture come un rullo compressore. Seguirlo con google earth e google image (e Wikipedia) è stato simpatico.
Ma i libri di Fermor sono un'altra cosa! Fermor scrisse del suo viaggio a distanza di tempo, basandosi sui ricordi e sui taccuini parte dei quali dispersi. Ebbe quindi modo di ragionare più a lungo sulla sua avventura e nelle ricostruzioni romanzare anche un po'. Ma fu anche un personaggio di altro spessore, umano e culturale, e uno scrittore con i fiocchi. Percorse il suo cammino a 18 anni, Hunt a 30 me lo aspettavo un po' più profondo.
(l'ho già detto che di Fermor leggerei anche la lista della spesa?)
A posteriori mi sono accorta di aver già letto un libro suo "Dove soffiano i venti selvaggi", e pure quello non mi ha fatto tremare le vene dei polsi.
Se interessa, il percorso di Hunt su google earth, fatto da me medesima di pirsona pirsonalmente, da scaricare:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WO3U...
E' inevitabile che a 80 anni di distanza, dopo il passaggio della guerra, del nazismo, dell'unione sovietica, le cose siano un po' cambiate. Intere culture cancellate, biblioteche date alle fiamme, ville distrutte o trasformate in ospedali psichiatrici: di Fermor e del suo mondo non rimane nemmeno il ricordo. Anche il paesaggio, soprattutto nell'ovest, è radicalmente diverso: sentieri sono diventati strade, strade sono diventate autostrade e le squallide periferie urbane sono dilagate dove un tempo c'erano boschi e campagne. Anche il Danubio ha subito l'ingiuria delle numerose dighe che ne hanno addomesticato la corrente e le coste della Bulgaria sul Mar Nero, sono cannibalizzate dal turismo.
La prima parte del libro l'ho trovata un po' fredda e non molto interessante. Possibile che di Salisburgo abbia trovato da parlare solo dei mitici cioccolatini di Mozart e dell'abbigliamento degli abitanti? Anche di Vienna, dove si ferma qualche giorno con la fidanzata, pare che parli con un certo fastidio. Di München la cosa più notevole è la Hofbräuhaus, i bavaresi sembrano tutti allegri sbevazzoni vestiti di cuoio. Poi finalmente entra in Slovacchia, e da lì in poi diventa più vivo e interessante, il paesaggio meno violentato, anche gli incontri più vivaci, nonostante l'URSS sia passata sopra persone e culture come un rullo compressore. Seguirlo con google earth e google image (e Wikipedia) è stato simpatico.
Ma i libri di Fermor sono un'altra cosa! Fermor scrisse del suo viaggio a distanza di tempo, basandosi sui ricordi e sui taccuini parte dei quali dispersi. Ebbe quindi modo di ragionare più a lungo sulla sua avventura e nelle ricostruzioni romanzare anche un po'. Ma fu anche un personaggio di altro spessore, umano e culturale, e uno scrittore con i fiocchi. Percorse il suo cammino a 18 anni, Hunt a 30 me lo aspettavo un po' più profondo.
(l'ho già detto che di Fermor leggerei anche la lista della spesa?)
A posteriori mi sono accorta di aver già letto un libro suo "Dove soffiano i venti selvaggi", e pure quello non mi ha fatto tremare le vene dei polsi.
Se interessa, il percorso di Hunt su google earth, fatto da me medesima di pirsona pirsonalmente, da scaricare:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WO3U...
March 27, 2014
thoroughly enjoyed this. In the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor, not steps that can easily be filled, but in some ways he didn't try. And of course Europe is a very different place from 70 years ago. I particularly enjoyed, if that is not a paradox, his descriptions of his own physical distress. He was clearer than Fermor was about the mental as well as physical challenge such a pilgrimage is. Although like Fermor he seems to have been a little surprised about his own ease with his own company. Unlike him he seems not to have much facility at learning languages. But perhaps I am unfair on this last. Anyway, it is highly entertaining. Easy to read, unlike Fermor sometimes because of the extra level of erudition he had. Well, I liked it quite a lot, and it is another perspective on Europe today. Inspiring too, in some ways.
March 10, 2016
Great book for the armchair traveller, and I really admire Hunt and the hundreds of miles he walked from Rotterdam to Istanbul.
Although he was walking in Fermor's footsteps, this was very much Hunt's walk and experiences, and he never let Fermor get too much in the way.
The three maps in the book weren't very good which is a shame as it was nice to follow his route. And apart from the 3 poor maps there were no photographs or illustrations which I think was a pity.
Although he was walking in Fermor's footsteps, this was very much Hunt's walk and experiences, and he never let Fermor get too much in the way.
The three maps in the book weren't very good which is a shame as it was nice to follow his route. And apart from the 3 poor maps there were no photographs or illustrations which I think was a pity.
January 24, 2016
I am so jealous of this young man and his walk from The Netherlands to Istanbul on many levels. Jealous of his youth, his health, his ability to live salary-free for almost a year, his navigational abilities without gps and detailed maps, and lastly his ability as a man to blend in to social settings that would never be possible as a woman. He is a gifted writer as well.
"The ludicrousness of the walking pace could be deeply frustrating. The trick, as I would come to discover was to ignore the destination and fill my mind with the journey...but this lesson would be weeks in coming."
(re: death of his grandfather) "Sometimes all you can do with loss is walk, and carry it with you."
(re: church Ulm, Germany)"Generations of stone carvers had continued their parents' work, crowding the gutters with Wasserspeier, water spitters, in the form of griffins, lions, elephants...and the joyous irreverence of the carvings gave a sense of the cockeyed humour that must have thrived in the region....One gargoyle was an ostrich that shot rainwater out its arse, in the direction of the house belonging to a woman who had spurned the carver's advances."
"This white, wolfish land was Bavaria's genius loci."
"I followed the Mangfall, a noisy blue river bubbling with yellow pools, past riverside houses with no signs of life, their occupants apparently in hibernation, snuggled up like Moomintrolls in darkened rooms."
(re: Linz, Austria) "I ordered Marillebrand, apricot schnapps to take the bite from the cold, served in a glass like something from an alchemist's workshop."
(re: history of the oppressed) "My sympathies generally crept towards Slovakians in Slovakia, Hungarians in Hungary, and Romanians in Romania, and whether this showed empathy or extreme gullibility I wouldn't have liked to think about too much."
(re: modernization mandates) 'Our government is embarrased by the fact we still have peasants here' said Alexandra. 'They think it is backward primitive. They're trying to force peasants off the land so foreign multinationals like Monsanto can grow modified crops here. No capitalist government wants its people to be self-sufficient - self-sufficient people don't go shopping. They are trying to make us dependent, to take away our freedom, so we can be controlled.'
(re: Hungarian [Magyar] nationalism) "Behind all disparities of wealth and power lies implicit violence, no matter how cultured the ruling class might be."
Saddest of all is the concluding chapter regarding the escalating friction between the religious vs secular factions in Turkey. Mr. Hunt took his walk in 2011; how quickly things change.
"The ludicrousness of the walking pace could be deeply frustrating. The trick, as I would come to discover was to ignore the destination and fill my mind with the journey...but this lesson would be weeks in coming."
(re: death of his grandfather) "Sometimes all you can do with loss is walk, and carry it with you."
(re: church Ulm, Germany)"Generations of stone carvers had continued their parents' work, crowding the gutters with Wasserspeier, water spitters, in the form of griffins, lions, elephants...and the joyous irreverence of the carvings gave a sense of the cockeyed humour that must have thrived in the region....One gargoyle was an ostrich that shot rainwater out its arse, in the direction of the house belonging to a woman who had spurned the carver's advances."
"This white, wolfish land was Bavaria's genius loci."
"I followed the Mangfall, a noisy blue river bubbling with yellow pools, past riverside houses with no signs of life, their occupants apparently in hibernation, snuggled up like Moomintrolls in darkened rooms."
(re: Linz, Austria) "I ordered Marillebrand, apricot schnapps to take the bite from the cold, served in a glass like something from an alchemist's workshop."
(re: history of the oppressed) "My sympathies generally crept towards Slovakians in Slovakia, Hungarians in Hungary, and Romanians in Romania, and whether this showed empathy or extreme gullibility I wouldn't have liked to think about too much."
(re: modernization mandates) 'Our government is embarrased by the fact we still have peasants here' said Alexandra. 'They think it is backward primitive. They're trying to force peasants off the land so foreign multinationals like Monsanto can grow modified crops here. No capitalist government wants its people to be self-sufficient - self-sufficient people don't go shopping. They are trying to make us dependent, to take away our freedom, so we can be controlled.'
(re: Hungarian [Magyar] nationalism) "Behind all disparities of wealth and power lies implicit violence, no matter how cultured the ruling class might be."
Saddest of all is the concluding chapter regarding the escalating friction between the religious vs secular factions in Turkey. Mr. Hunt took his walk in 2011; how quickly things change.
November 2, 2014
Nick Hunt does credit to the memory of Patrick Leigh Fermor, in what I hope is to be his first of many travel books. Following in Paddy's path from the Hook of Holland, across Europe to Istanbul following the Danube river much of the way, Hunt has vividly captured the current culture of Europe as PLF did the dying of the old feudal regime in the years leading up to WWII and Communism. What I appreciated so much about "Walking" is that Nick Hunt wrote his own book from his own experiences, referencing PLF as their journeys merged in Powerful ways such as meeting the Great-Granddaughter of one of the members of the nobility with which Paddy had stayed. At the same time, Hunt sheds light on PLF's wanderings by using place names often where PLF is vague. Now I can finally look up and see for myself the ruins of some of those great country houses where PLF read leather bound books in well stocked libraries, dined with elegantly dressed Counts and Countesses and lived the dying days of the old estates. Hunt has an engaging writing style that carries you along on a journey he evidently enjoyed himself; a refreshing change from some other attempts at travel journalism I have read recently. While mostly focused on the landscape and people he meets in the present day, Hunt brings in enough history and deft political analysis to provide context without overshadowing the travel narrative.
July 17, 2016
I found this to be a fascinating walking/travel/tour of Europe book. I am surprised that Nick Hunt made a decision to follow the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor from the Netherlands to Constantinople but, even more, astounded that he accomplished it. People talk of walking the Camino de Santiago. That's 500 miles in 30 or 40 days; but Nick did around 2,500 in 221 days - with no preparation, with little equipment (he only got a tent in Hungary)! But with lots of friends, or friends of friends, or friendly strangers who gave him shelter, some food and good conversation along the way. But there were many days that he had none of these - like the time he slept in the woods Germany in the middle of winter, or crossed the high peaks of the Carpathian mountains for several days in driving rain. His writing style kept me interested all along the way, with colourful descriptions of what he observes, both of the scenery as well as of the people and societies he passes through. In parlticular, I liked his observations of how towns and countries have changed from the romamntic time when Fermor walked the rouote in 1933 until today when modern times have destroyed all that. This deserves to be a classic. I will have to read Patrick Leigh Fermor's original book now to see wlhich I like better.
June 9, 2016
Had a lot of potential but just never lived up to it. Quite well written but became quite tedious- much like walking across the Great Hungarian plain. Author couchsurfs everywhere and gets to meet people everyday who explain the history of the place or a local story and then gets drunk/ stoned with them. All well and good but it gets repetitive. We learn nothing about the author apart from an early mention that he is relative of mountaineer John Hunt. For me there seems to be a lack of drama or adventure. He has a nice turn of phrase but it sounds like it was written from a University course textbook on how to write a travel book. It seems that it has a too easy feel about it -the fact that he can take so much time off work, money doesn't seem to be an issue, he's just doing it because he can, takes away the passion and the drama for me. Again, he seems to be an excellent writer but more Andrea Bocelli than Pavorotti. The beginning and end were enjoyable, the big mid section was a bit of a grind.
May 6, 2018
A thoroughly enjoyable read, a condensed modern version of the PLF three books.
Recommend to anyone who has enjoyed the original books that spurred Nick Hunt to emulate the original author and retrace his steps eight decades later.
Recommend to anyone who has enjoyed the original books that spurred Nick Hunt to emulate the original author and retrace his steps eight decades later.
January 31, 2015
Nick Hunt follows in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor's famous hike across Europe in the 1930s. This is one of the finest travel books I've read, PLF would have loved it. Highly recommended.
June 3, 2021
This is a great book which I really enjoyed reading. It is tempting to draw a comparison with Patrick Leigh Fermor's epic walk along more or less the same route, but that is a temptation that ought to be resisted. The author was inspired by the earlier walk, but there are some fairly important differences, as well as the surprising similarities.
The most obvious difference is that the world has moved on in the 70 year gap. World War II came and went. The Cold War came and went. The Iron Curtain went up and then down again. Each of these helped to shape the countries through which the author walked. Each left a legacy that wasn't there for the earlier walk, and these are very different times. The walk took place in an era of mass motorised transport. With mobile communications. With internet based support groups providing way stations along the route. In that sense, the modern walk had a much more developed support infrastructure.
And yet there were also similarities. The weather was relatively unchanged - winter was cold, summer hot. The terrain was very similar - mountains and rivers don't shift vast distances over 70 years. The basic road structure was the same, except that the modern walk had more traffic travelling at faster speeds. This sameness of the walk provided the adventure element. It's almost as if the physical environment provided continuity, while the human environment provided the element of change.
What the author captures well is the sense of adventure. Only having a rough idea of where he is going. Using a 70 year old travel book as a guide. Sleeping rough when necessary, cadging assistance when needed. There is something that appeals to our wanderer instincts and that made is a compelling read.
The book is well written and the journey just flows off the page. It is a real page turner that is very hard to put down. I don't normally read contemporary adventure tales, but this is worth making an exception.
The most obvious difference is that the world has moved on in the 70 year gap. World War II came and went. The Cold War came and went. The Iron Curtain went up and then down again. Each of these helped to shape the countries through which the author walked. Each left a legacy that wasn't there for the earlier walk, and these are very different times. The walk took place in an era of mass motorised transport. With mobile communications. With internet based support groups providing way stations along the route. In that sense, the modern walk had a much more developed support infrastructure.
And yet there were also similarities. The weather was relatively unchanged - winter was cold, summer hot. The terrain was very similar - mountains and rivers don't shift vast distances over 70 years. The basic road structure was the same, except that the modern walk had more traffic travelling at faster speeds. This sameness of the walk provided the adventure element. It's almost as if the physical environment provided continuity, while the human environment provided the element of change.
What the author captures well is the sense of adventure. Only having a rough idea of where he is going. Using a 70 year old travel book as a guide. Sleeping rough when necessary, cadging assistance when needed. There is something that appeals to our wanderer instincts and that made is a compelling read.
The book is well written and the journey just flows off the page. It is a real page turner that is very hard to put down. I don't normally read contemporary adventure tales, but this is worth making an exception.
October 13, 2017
Hunt's book is what a travel book should never be: wishy-washy. Hunt doesn't quite capture the sense of adventure, so it's no roller coaster for the armchair traveler, nor achieves an informative tone despite containing historical notes here and there. 50% of the book consists of landscape descriptions, which I believe can become a bit redundant and pointless.
I've gone through all the book (skimming through the aforementioned descriptions) because his prose is more than correct and reads very well. Nevertheless, there is no soul in the characters he meets (usually dispatched with a brief physical description and one or two vague quotes) or sense of purpose and charisma in his journey. I haven't felt moved nor jealous of his experience for a second, most days and encounters seem rather bland and dispassionate.
The main premise of the book (how much is there of PLF's Europe nowadays?) is relatively well maintained throughout the pages although it becomes repetitive (dusty paths becoming highways, empty spaces are now blocks of apartments, the romanticized aura of the once ruling aristocracy has been replaced by the horrible consequences of the communist hangover...) and not very well documented (I get it, he decided not to do much of a background research prior to the trip. That doesn't mean he couldn't do it after. In my opinion, this would help notably the depth of his arguments and the overall value of his book).
I've gone through all the book (skimming through the aforementioned descriptions) because his prose is more than correct and reads very well. Nevertheless, there is no soul in the characters he meets (usually dispatched with a brief physical description and one or two vague quotes) or sense of purpose and charisma in his journey. I haven't felt moved nor jealous of his experience for a second, most days and encounters seem rather bland and dispassionate.
The main premise of the book (how much is there of PLF's Europe nowadays?) is relatively well maintained throughout the pages although it becomes repetitive (dusty paths becoming highways, empty spaces are now blocks of apartments, the romanticized aura of the once ruling aristocracy has been replaced by the horrible consequences of the communist hangover...) and not very well documented (I get it, he decided not to do much of a background research prior to the trip. That doesn't mean he couldn't do it after. In my opinion, this would help notably the depth of his arguments and the overall value of his book).
May 14, 2017
I rank Patrick Leigh Fermor's trilogy about his 1933 journey from the North Sea coast to the Golden Horn as some of my favourite books of all time, so I was delighted to discover this twenty-first century retracing of that epic journey by Nick Hunt. PLF made his journey as much of Europe was poised on the tipping point between the long nineteenth century and the cataclysm of totalitarianism and the Second World War. Throughout the trilogy there's a sense of the old order facing an uncertain and threatening future. Walking the Woods and the Water finds a Europe in many respects utterly transformed: much of Nick Hunt's journey is accompanied by the noise of heavy traffic, heavy industry, environments wrecked by mass tourism and in the east, by decades of communist state planning. But in between, there are hundreds of miles of countryside, mountains and forests where things really haven't changed all that much. Also unchanged is the friendliness and human kindness that Hunt encounters on his journey, which only increases as he progresses: 'the general rule seemed to be that the further east I travelled, the people got nicer and the canines got nastier'.
Walking the Woods and the Water is a moving and engaging tribute to PLF's original trilogy and a fascinating cross section of life in twenty first century Europe.
Walking the Woods and the Water is a moving and engaging tribute to PLF's original trilogy and a fascinating cross section of life in twenty first century Europe.
September 4, 2017
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2844587.html
If a thing is worth doing, it's probably worth doing again, and Nick Hunt replicated Patrick Leigh Fermor's 1933-34 walk, as far as possible, in 2011. The world has changed, and the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey have all changed too since 1934. The journey changes the writer as well; the pace of walking is of course far different to the more usual speed of travel today, and enables him to engage with the locals in a way that we casual tourists who drop in and out of hotels, pubs and restaurants will never get. Some of it is depressing - the relationship between Hungarians and Romanians is never going to be smooth; war, Communism, industrialisation and ethnic homogenisations have reshaped and destroyed large parts of the landscape that Leigh Fermor knew, particularly the homes of the Hungarian nobles who he visited and made love to. At the same time, crucially, Hunt is travelling across a continent at peace, and unlikely to return to war; where Leigh Fermor caught a moment in time as the old order entered its terminal disintegration, Hunt captures societies picking themselves up - some more slowly than others - after the disasters of the twentieth century. It is a rather hopeful account.
If a thing is worth doing, it's probably worth doing again, and Nick Hunt replicated Patrick Leigh Fermor's 1933-34 walk, as far as possible, in 2011. The world has changed, and the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey have all changed too since 1934. The journey changes the writer as well; the pace of walking is of course far different to the more usual speed of travel today, and enables him to engage with the locals in a way that we casual tourists who drop in and out of hotels, pubs and restaurants will never get. Some of it is depressing - the relationship between Hungarians and Romanians is never going to be smooth; war, Communism, industrialisation and ethnic homogenisations have reshaped and destroyed large parts of the landscape that Leigh Fermor knew, particularly the homes of the Hungarian nobles who he visited and made love to. At the same time, crucially, Hunt is travelling across a continent at peace, and unlikely to return to war; where Leigh Fermor caught a moment in time as the old order entered its terminal disintegration, Hunt captures societies picking themselves up - some more slowly than others - after the disasters of the twentieth century. It is a rather hopeful account.
June 5, 2014
To purchase this book is obviously to have read P. L. Fermor's masterpieces and to be motivated by (an unhealthy?) curiosity of how it compares.
Well, it doesn't. WWW is an entirely new book about a walking adventure in an entirely different world, a bit like visiting the ruins of Pompei, except that the Vesuvius has been replaced by the incredibly evil effects of Communism (for the second half of the walk) and the milder effects of liberal/laisser-faire/automobile culture (in the first half).
Mr. Hunts' writing is nowhere as flowery and circonvoluted as PLFs' prose, but his keen senses of observation and flegmatic humour kept me riveted until the very end, with flights of inspired poetry interspersed with fascinating encounters and of course the pain of walking a very long way.
A page-turner and a great travel book in its' own right, as well as a suitable epilogue for PLFs' trilogy.
Well, it doesn't. WWW is an entirely new book about a walking adventure in an entirely different world, a bit like visiting the ruins of Pompei, except that the Vesuvius has been replaced by the incredibly evil effects of Communism (for the second half of the walk) and the milder effects of liberal/laisser-faire/automobile culture (in the first half).
Mr. Hunts' writing is nowhere as flowery and circonvoluted as PLFs' prose, but his keen senses of observation and flegmatic humour kept me riveted until the very end, with flights of inspired poetry interspersed with fascinating encounters and of course the pain of walking a very long way.
A page-turner and a great travel book in its' own right, as well as a suitable epilogue for PLFs' trilogy.
January 28, 2017
I enjoyed this even though it started to get a little bit samey in places. Hunt achieves a good balance between his own experiences and the legacy of Fermor -- wisely not competing with the latter! Interesting how nowadays couch-surfing and similar internet features can provide bed, board, and local friends nearly everywhere now; it was impressive how many total strangers happily accepted Hunt into their homes and social lives. If you liked Nicholas Crane,s account of his walk across Europe, you'll probably enjoy this.
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August 31, 2020A rewalking of Patrik Leigh Fermors epic walk to Constantinople. Interesting to see how the car has changed the landscape, how a lot of European countries look a lot more like each other than before the First World War. A good read.
September 15, 2023
An enjoyable read, more for the towns and characters along the way than the walk itself. An impressive exercise in perseverance.
November 6, 2024
Great travel writing. Wonderful to watch the author follow in Fermor's footsteps and see the changes that had been wrought.
April 1, 2025
I just love books about walking across Europe it’s my niche interest
March 26, 2015
Firstly, I assume that no one would be reading this book if they hadn't already read (and loved) Paddy Fermor's walking trilogy. If anyone is considering reading this book without first reading Paddy's books - DON'T! It's not just that the practical details and locational references relate closely to the earlier books (they were, after all, the point of this trip), but also the comparisons (and here i include also the style of writing) are lifeless without first having enjoyed Paddy's extravaganza.
As I started reading this book, it was quickly clear that, 80 years on, not only has the landscape changed immensely, but so have writing standards, loosely put. Instead of Paddy's camp erudition, we get a much more mundane and, er, pedestrian text. Initially this bothered me, and I felt the book rated 3 (which i could charitably mark up to 4 in recognition of the service done - I, like presumably thousands of others, long to repeat Paddy's trek, to see what's changed and what is eternal, but we never will, so thank you for actually doing it for us!)
But, as time wore on, I got under the author's skin (the writing does improve, too, I'm sure) and realised that familiarity (contemporariness) had bred contempt, and in any case, Paddy had no doubt woven all kinds of tricks in his text, informed by massive hindsight and imagination, which no one would be able to plausibly refute. Hunt faces the intense openness of writing now, with thousands of eyes able to immediately debunk any wild claims. He's a different person, but he's also a person of today's age.
And then, when i accepted i was drinking coffee not tea (or beer not wine...) i started to lose myself in a fresh set of observations and absorbing accounts of off-the-path experiences. And I have to say, in the end, this was a thoroughly enjoyable book. A worthy successor to Paddy's. But read his first!
As I started reading this book, it was quickly clear that, 80 years on, not only has the landscape changed immensely, but so have writing standards, loosely put. Instead of Paddy's camp erudition, we get a much more mundane and, er, pedestrian text. Initially this bothered me, and I felt the book rated 3 (which i could charitably mark up to 4 in recognition of the service done - I, like presumably thousands of others, long to repeat Paddy's trek, to see what's changed and what is eternal, but we never will, so thank you for actually doing it for us!)
But, as time wore on, I got under the author's skin (the writing does improve, too, I'm sure) and realised that familiarity (contemporariness) had bred contempt, and in any case, Paddy had no doubt woven all kinds of tricks in his text, informed by massive hindsight and imagination, which no one would be able to plausibly refute. Hunt faces the intense openness of writing now, with thousands of eyes able to immediately debunk any wild claims. He's a different person, but he's also a person of today's age.
And then, when i accepted i was drinking coffee not tea (or beer not wine...) i started to lose myself in a fresh set of observations and absorbing accounts of off-the-path experiences. And I have to say, in the end, this was a thoroughly enjoyable book. A worthy successor to Paddy's. But read his first!
September 26, 2020
Nick Hunt parte nel dicembre del 2011 sulle tracce di Patrick Leigh Fermor, il quale ottant'anni prima, nel dicembre del '33, lo ha preceduto in una camminata dalle coste olandesi fino ad Istanbul. Hunt svolge il suo viaggio in condizioni più modeste del suo predecessore e dimora nelle case di aderenti alla rete di couch surfing, fan di PLF e da amici di amici o, semplicemente per strada, mentre PLF era spesso ospite di magioni e castelli della rete aristocratica della quale faceva parte anche se un po' scapestrato. Da notare la sfortuna di Hunt con il meteo, tanta, tantissima pioggia e in Baviera e Austria temperature ben sotto i -10°C.
Il libro di Hunt è bello e interessante, i riferimenti a PLF molti, attraverso un mondo che spostandosi sempre più verso est propone, le parole sono sue, persone sempre più gentili e cani sempre più feroci.
Hunt è uno scrittore di viaggi, questo libro è stato il suo primo del genere e scrive su diversi giornali. Sorprendono dunque sia alcune imprecisioni, come l'osservazione che l'Inn scorra verso sud (scorre verso nord/nord-est) e quella che Linz sia stata la città natale di Hitler (in realtà Braunau am Inn), così come sorprende l'innocente ammissione di ignoranza di molti aspetti storici dei luoghi visitati, il più sorprendente il non sapere fino al momento della scoperta in loco, cosa ospitassero le vicinanze di Mauthausen.
E' stato piacevole leggerlo e confrontare la mia idea e le mie conoscenze di moltissimi dei posti che Hunt e, prima, PLF hanno calpestato, con quelle appunto dell'autore. Tra tutti questi luoghi svetta su tutti e per tutti la Romania.
p.s. Patrick Leigh Fermor scrisse tre libri sul suo viaggio (si trovano anche tra i miei libri).
Il libro di Hunt è bello e interessante, i riferimenti a PLF molti, attraverso un mondo che spostandosi sempre più verso est propone, le parole sono sue, persone sempre più gentili e cani sempre più feroci.
Hunt è uno scrittore di viaggi, questo libro è stato il suo primo del genere e scrive su diversi giornali. Sorprendono dunque sia alcune imprecisioni, come l'osservazione che l'Inn scorra verso sud (scorre verso nord/nord-est) e quella che Linz sia stata la città natale di Hitler (in realtà Braunau am Inn), così come sorprende l'innocente ammissione di ignoranza di molti aspetti storici dei luoghi visitati, il più sorprendente il non sapere fino al momento della scoperta in loco, cosa ospitassero le vicinanze di Mauthausen.
E' stato piacevole leggerlo e confrontare la mia idea e le mie conoscenze di moltissimi dei posti che Hunt e, prima, PLF hanno calpestato, con quelle appunto dell'autore. Tra tutti questi luoghi svetta su tutti e per tutti la Romania.
p.s. Patrick Leigh Fermor scrisse tre libri sul suo viaggio (si trovano anche tra i miei libri).
July 5, 2014
Books that explore ordinary places on foot can be a joy, and this is certainly true of Nick Hunt's quest to retrace the steps of Patrick Leigh Fermor. I so enjoyed this book that I'm tempted to compare it with those of his predecessor on the journey 70 years earlier. Hunt has some lovely descriptions, as of course did Paddy in his three books. Here's one from towards the end: '...here and there the green skin of the mountains had been tugged away, as if by giant fingers, and jumbled rock burst out like sausage meat.' Superb.
Hunt's book is a compelling read - one of those delicious books that you want to finish and not finish at the same time, so you ration yourself to a chapter a day to draw out the pleasure. Whereas Paddy's books are (too me) often over-sumptious; his descriptions can be so mouth-wateringly elaborate they are like a particularly sweet tiramisu - best digested in small quantities.
Hunt is particularly good on the contrasts between then and now - of course one of the objects of his journey. He reminds us of Paddy's experiences, adds his own, and explores the differences. Always alert to 21st century urban clutter, he nevertheless teases out the reminders of a recent past, and delights in the remaining few full-bodied remnants of that past, such as the traditional and even over-enthusiastic hospitality of the Turks he meets in small villages not yet within the modernising orbit of Instanbul.
Or Constantinople, as Paddy of course insisted on calling it.
Hunt's book is a compelling read - one of those delicious books that you want to finish and not finish at the same time, so you ration yourself to a chapter a day to draw out the pleasure. Whereas Paddy's books are (too me) often over-sumptious; his descriptions can be so mouth-wateringly elaborate they are like a particularly sweet tiramisu - best digested in small quantities.
Hunt is particularly good on the contrasts between then and now - of course one of the objects of his journey. He reminds us of Paddy's experiences, adds his own, and explores the differences. Always alert to 21st century urban clutter, he nevertheless teases out the reminders of a recent past, and delights in the remaining few full-bodied remnants of that past, such as the traditional and even over-enthusiastic hospitality of the Turks he meets in small villages not yet within the modernising orbit of Instanbul.
Or Constantinople, as Paddy of course insisted on calling it.
June 26, 2016
Walking the Woods and the Water is a magical book that is a perfect combination of personal adventure plus sociological and historical investigation. In beautifully constructed prose, Nick Hunt shares his two hundred and twenty-one day walk across eight countries from Holland to Turkey--a trek that followed the same route as Patrick (Paddy) Leigh Fermor’s similar walk eighty years earlier. Each country, discovery, experience and encounter is exquisitely detailed so that the reader becomes a delighted participant in the adventure. It is a comparison of the land and cultures of these areas with what had been eighty years before – a time before WWII and the Communist occupation of Eastern Europe. But, it is so much more; it is also the story of cultures that have known centuries of empire-building, invasions, occupations, upheaval, and survival. It is a pertinent story for today’s Europe as the survival of the EU is challenged. Every turn of the page is a reading adventure, hearing “the applause of the rain on the upturned leaves,” meeting the forester’s wife who “packed sausages into her mouth like a happy little hedgehog” or feeling frustrated by the irregularly shaped lake that seemed endless, as if it was participating in a “mischievous trick…changing shape, wriggling into new alignments, its probing arms growing and shrinking insidiously subdividing[.]” This book occupies a very prominent place on my shelf of favorite books.
September 7, 2020
Positiv overraskelse. I 1933 gik den 18-årige Patrick Leigh Fermor fra den hollandske kyst til Istanbul, tværs gennem et Europa der ikke længere findes, før Anden Verdenskrig og den efterfølgende industrialisering ændrede hele kontinentet radikalt. Rejsen skildrede han langt senere i de tre bøger A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water og (posthumt) The Broken Road, muligvis de bedste rejsebøger nogensinde. Bøgerne er gode, ikke mindst fordi de prikker til drømmen om at man selv kunne gøre det samme -- vejen ligger lige der, det er bare at spænde støvlerne og tage afsted. Det er det Nick Hunt gør i Walking the Woods and the Water, bare med afgang i 2011 frem for 1933. Det kunne have været en okay rejseskildring med lidt for meget hyldest til Fermor og lidt for meget nostalgi efter verden af i går, men det ender med at være noget bedre. Hunt gør turen til sin egen -- han bruger ikke alt for mange dage på at rekonstruere Fermors rute eller finde de havneknejper han overnattede på, men prøver nærmere at ramme ånden fra Fermors tur, med masser af couchsurfing og invitationer fra de lokale han møder, overnatning i det fri og længere ophold når han føler for det. I stedet for at prøve at finde verden af i går kigger han efter verden af i dag, og det er nok den rigtige måde at gøre det på; i stedet for nostalgi efter alt det forsvundne bliver det en fortælling om at verden stadig ligger derude og stadig rummer en masse eventyr.
April 17, 2016
Anyone who has read the celebrated traveller’s tales of Patrick Leigh Fermor will likely enjoy this modern re-tracing of his famous footsteps. Nick Hunt, guided only by Paddy’s long-obsolete itinerary, walks from the Hook of Holland all the way to Istanbul’s Golden Horn, encountering remnants from Paddy’s own experiences, and the world of post WWII and Cold War Europe, both East and West.
Hunt’s observations include current political tides and popular movements. He witnesses and reflects on the Occupy movement in Holland, and the anti-EU politics of some countries in the former Eastern Bloc; on attitudes towards various ethnic groups, and on the rise of rampant consumerism in the wake of the fall of Communism.
Balancing this are Hunt’s experiences in the company of artists and bohemians with whom he finds shelter, of people he has connected with over the internet, or chance encounters on the road.
Hunt’s story is blessed with a historical overview resonant to the modern reader. His writing style is easier to read than Paddy’s belaboured memoirs, his descriptive passages more spontaneous, less ponderous. In fact, from beginning to end ‘Walking the Woods and the Water’ is a joyous book, and a reminder that, for one who dares, journeys of discovery are still possible.
Hunt’s observations include current political tides and popular movements. He witnesses and reflects on the Occupy movement in Holland, and the anti-EU politics of some countries in the former Eastern Bloc; on attitudes towards various ethnic groups, and on the rise of rampant consumerism in the wake of the fall of Communism.
Balancing this are Hunt’s experiences in the company of artists and bohemians with whom he finds shelter, of people he has connected with over the internet, or chance encounters on the road.
Hunt’s story is blessed with a historical overview resonant to the modern reader. His writing style is easier to read than Paddy’s belaboured memoirs, his descriptive passages more spontaneous, less ponderous. In fact, from beginning to end ‘Walking the Woods and the Water’ is a joyous book, and a reminder that, for one who dares, journeys of discovery are still possible.
May 30, 2015
Ah, to take a year off and walk the highways and byways of Europe, from the Hook of Holland to the banks of the Bosphorus in Istanbul! And with the ghost of that Renaissance Man and war hero Paddy Leigh-Fermor for company, to boot.
Nick Hunt cannot, of course, match the superb and evocative verbosity of Leigh-Fermor's iconic trilogy. That original trek across the continent in 1933, just as the old ways were about to be swept away by the Nazi blitzkrieg and the post-war madness of the Soviet bloc, is a time capsule and paen to a world that is beyond memory now. But Hunt, with the right balance between charting his own course and following in Paddy's footsteps, sees glimpses still of the cultures, hospitality, beauty and bathos of these communities in transition still.
For the adventurers, the Leigh-Fermor devotees - and anyone who just occasionally dreams of leaving the world behind, this is a great way to escape. Nick Hunt is fine company, and I'm sure Paddy is smiling too.
Nick Hunt cannot, of course, match the superb and evocative verbosity of Leigh-Fermor's iconic trilogy. That original trek across the continent in 1933, just as the old ways were about to be swept away by the Nazi blitzkrieg and the post-war madness of the Soviet bloc, is a time capsule and paen to a world that is beyond memory now. But Hunt, with the right balance between charting his own course and following in Paddy's footsteps, sees glimpses still of the cultures, hospitality, beauty and bathos of these communities in transition still.
For the adventurers, the Leigh-Fermor devotees - and anyone who just occasionally dreams of leaving the world behind, this is a great way to escape. Nick Hunt is fine company, and I'm sure Paddy is smiling too.
May 10, 2017
This book describes Nick Hunt's journey following in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor seventy years earlier and described in his trilogy.
After some deliberation, I decided to read this book BEFORE reading the trilogy, prolonging the moment when I finally read the books which I have been orbiting for over a year now and bringing myself a litter closer to the event.
There was a doubt in the back of my mind that perhaps this was a derivative work, merely piggy-backing on a greater work and possibly amateurishly written but I was wrong. This is a great book! Hunt's journey is exciting and entertaining in it's own right.
References the words of PLF give some sense of purpose to his travels and occasionally highlight how things have (or have not) changed over the intervening years. This adds an extra dimension to the book which not only traverses the continent but compares the Europe of 1934 with the modern day.
After some deliberation, I decided to read this book BEFORE reading the trilogy, prolonging the moment when I finally read the books which I have been orbiting for over a year now and bringing myself a litter closer to the event.
There was a doubt in the back of my mind that perhaps this was a derivative work, merely piggy-backing on a greater work and possibly amateurishly written but I was wrong. This is a great book! Hunt's journey is exciting and entertaining in it's own right.
References the words of PLF give some sense of purpose to his travels and occasionally highlight how things have (or have not) changed over the intervening years. This adds an extra dimension to the book which not only traverses the continent but compares the Europe of 1934 with the modern day.
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