Dashing for the Post

Wow - one tour de force after another! The best letters are as good as - if not better than - any in the language: Byron’s, Walpole’s, Henry James’s, Freya Stark’s. Often I laughed aloud, tears coursing down the cheeks

Zestful, vivid and buoyant with polymathic learning, Leigh Fermor’s letters reveal themselves perfect for anthology. There are descriptions and anecdotes equal to anything in his writing, spurred by memorable friendships, suffused with affection and occasional distress: all finely edited by Adam Sisman

Hugely entertaining, funny and occasionally moving … edited meticulously and brilliantly - Observer

Zest, verbal finesse, almost pristine receptivity and a richly informed cultural and historical consciousness make these letters, even when the erosions of time and illness shadow them, irresistibly exhilarating - Sunday Times

Adam Sisman is a model editor … Reading these letters is like gobbling down a tray of exotically filled chocolates, with no horrible orange creams to put you off - Literary Review

Here is a veritable feast for fans of Paddy Leigh Fermor … Sisman has done a tremendous job selecting and editing this treasure-trove of letters - The Spectator

Glorious, heady stuff … judiciously edited by Adam Sisman - Evening Standard

Adam Sisman’s selection of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s letters is entirely admirable … an unmissable feast - Daily Telegraph