I've been meaning to read this trilogy of classic travel memoirs for many years, but, as is the way of things, I just haven't got to them, until some time being laid up, I jumped at the chance. The trip was originally made in the 1930s, when Fermor was 18, but not published until many years later, and over a long period of time - Gifts was published in 1977, Woods and Water in 1986, and Broken Road after his death, in 2013, completed by Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper. Essentially, it's a walk across Europe from Holland to Istanbul, taking in Holland, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. They are fascinating, poetic books, by an equally fascinating and poetic man - he can write with great articulacy about everything from cultural history, architecture and art, tribal movements and invasions across Europe and their legacy, linguistics and the history of languages; he's equally at home with gypsies as he is with dukes and duchesses. During his journey, conducted mostly on foot, he sleeps everywhere and anywhere, in barns, in luxurious rooms, in budget hotels, he is robbed, he is given a pistol, he gets drunk many times; he is always thoughtful. These are amongst the best travel books I've read.