Between the Woods and the Water. On Foot to Constantinople from the Hook of Holland: The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates. Signed first edition

London: John Murray, 1986. First edition, 1986. Signed by the author to the title page. Hardback. 248pp. Double page map between pages 22 and 23. Blue cloth boards with gilt design to upper board. Gilt titles to spine. This is the sequel to the remarkable 'A Time of Gifts'. With a borrowed rucksack and the lifeline of a pound a week, Patrick Leigh Fermor set off in 1933 from the Hook of Holland to walk to Constantinople - a walk of a year and a half. 'Between the Woods and the Water' continues the journey down the Danube from Budapest: on horseback across the Great Hungarian Plain, and over the Rumanian border into Transylvania, a wild and beautiful region of forests and mountains secluded from tWestern eyes during centuries of religious and national complexity. He planned to live 'like a tramp, a pilgrim, or a wandering scholar', sleeping in work-houses, monasteries and barns. But a chance introduction in Bavaria led to a counterpointing of this rough curriculum with leisurely sojourns in castles: one night he would be kept awake by cattle, the next by heavily embroidered coronets on the linen of a rococo four-poster bed: then back again to the husks of some friendly swineherd. Yet the journey, with all its adventures, was more than a picaresque trail across Europe. It was a double exploration across a continent which was already showing ominous signs of the holocaust to come, and it provides a coherent understanding of the dramatic events in Middle Europe. The author's travels take him to remote castles, mountain villages, monasteries and towering ranges that are the haunt of bears, wolves and eagles, of Gypsies and a diversity of sects. The woods of the title are Transylvania itself, and the water is the Danube and its tributaries. This part of the journey ends at the Iron Gates, where the Balkans begin. Loosely inserted original errata slip Book in near fine condition. Some small areas of faint toning/spotting to end papers and fly leaves. Light crease to spine. Dust jacket very good and unclipped. Very minor edge wear. Slight soiling and very faint spotting.