Patrick Leigh Fermor

The author of this book, Patrick Leigh Fermor, could never be described as monastic. He lived an amazing life, as a soldier, significant fighter with guerrillas in Greece, a loyal and effective spy, and often described as the leading travel writer of the 20th century.

His last report from The King's School noted that the young Fermor was "a dangerous mixture of sophistication and recklessness." And so he was. At the age of 18, Leigh Fermor decided to walk the length of Europe, from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. He set off on 8 December 1933, shortly after Hitler had come to power in Germany, with a few clothes, several letters of introduction, the Oxford Book of English Verse and a volume of Horace's Odes. He slept in barns and shepherds' huts, but also was invited by landed gentry and aristocracy into the country houses of Central Europe. He experienced hospitality in many a monastery along the way.

All his books are fascinating - this one especially.

Although he smoked 80 to 100 cigarettes a day he remained physically fit up to his death and dined at table on the last evening of his life. For the last few months of his life he suffered from a cancerous tumour, and in early June 2011 he underwent a tracheotomy. As death was close, he expressed a wish to die in England and returned there on 9 June 2011. He died the following day, aged 96.

The funeral took place at St Peter's Church, Dumbleton, on 16 June 2011. A Guard of Honour was provided by serving and former members of the Intelligence Corps, and a bugler from the Irish Guards sounded the Last Post and reveille.