Living History

What a life! I am very impressed by the life of “Paddy” (PLF) through the eyes of Artemis Cooper in her book ‘Patrick Leigh Fermor. An Adventure’ (2012). Six months before his 18th birthday (1915-2011) he passed the London Certificate which qualified him to enter Sandhurst. But they did not accept cadets till they had turned 18. What to do with the remaining months? He had no private income and no connections - and he knew it - but he had a talent in history, languages and literature. Did he ever really want to join the militairy? What next for Paddy? Cooper: “The answer, he [Paddy] wrote, came suddenly one rainy evening. To leave England and travel would solve all problems. Sandhurst and the army would be indefinitely postponed. On one pound a week allowance he would walk across Europe. Sleeping in barns and hayricks, eating bread and cheese, living like a wandering scholar or pilgrim” (page 35). And he did. He walked from the Hook of Holland (The Netherlands) to Constantinople (Turkey). His real goal was Greece but walking through Europe to the very gates of Asia sounded much better. 

He borrowed some money from a father of a friend and received some money from his father. But the most important gift were a couple of letters of introduction to friends in Germany of Mrs Sandwith. They would be his passage through Europe and opened a world of castles and country houses, taking Paddy into a landed, aristocratic milieus that would otherwise have been unlikely to penetrate. He travelled, between 1933-1935 through the following countries: The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece.

He made, to put it in a metaphor, a cultural trail trench in Europe before WW2. A world that would (partly) vanish during WW2 and its aftermath. What was his weapon? Cooper: “Happiness, excitement, youth, good looks, eagerness to please and an open heart: Paddy had them all. The combination was irresistible, and people responded to it with warmth and delight” (page 44).

Cooper: “One has also to imagine the impact of Paddy on an old Count from eastern Europe, barely able to live off his much-diminished lands (…) Then a scruffy young Englishman with a rucksack turns up on the doorstep, recommended by a friend. He is polite, cheerful, and cannot hear enough about the family history. He pores over the books and albums in the library, and asks a thousand questions about the princely rulers, dynastic marriages, wars and revolts and waves of migration that shaped this part of the world. He wants to hear about the family portraits too, and begs the Count to remember the songs the peasants used to sing when he was a child. Instead of feeling like a useless fragment of a broken empire, the Count is transformed. This young Englishman has made him realize that he is part of living history, a link in an unbroken chain going back to Charlemagne and beyond” (page 70).

In May 1935 he met in Athens one of his two loves-of-his-life, her name was Princess Balasa Cantacuzene from Rumania. Cooper: “To each other the other came as a revelation. She was touched by Paddy’s youth, and saw that his erratic brilliance was in need of some polish” (page 105). They would stay together for four years. WW2 would tear their lives apart. Balasa stayed in Rumania. Paddy joined the Intelligence Corps and later the SOE. They were very interested in him because he spoke French, German, Rumanian and Greek. During WW2 he fought for the English on Crete (Greece). One of not so many British officers who were liaisons and supporters of the Cretan resistance. His highlight was the kidnapping of the German general who was in command of Crete. To boost Cretan morale and damage German confidence. It earned him a Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

At the end of WW2, in December 1944, he met in Cairo (Egypt) his second love-of-his-life, Joan Rayner. Dazzled at eachother from the first moment they met at a party. She was financially independent by her monthly allowance. She would share her allowance in time with him. For the rest of their lives they would stay together. Travelling together and apart with others. Sleeping together and apart with others. No (sexual) jealousy. She made photographs. He wrote books and articles. 

I was never really interested in travelling to Greece but this biography made it happen: I want to read Paddies’ two Greek books (‘Mani: Travels in Southern Peloponnese’ and ‘Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece’) and to see this country with my own eyes. And visit 'Kardamyli', the house Joan and Paddy built in Greece that is, since their passing away, turned into a museum. Next to that I want to read the three on foot to Constantinople books: ‘A Time of Gifts’, ‘Between the Woods and the Water’ and ‘The Broken Road’. He loved languages, books, poems and songs. He loved talking. To give more than take.