Title: Between the Woods and the Water
Author: Patrick Leigh Fermor
Published: 1986
Publisher: John Murray
First edition/first impression (‘First Published 1986’); UK; hardback with dust wrapper (price-clipped); covered in clear, removable protective wrapper

Very Good+/Very Good+: book has some foxing to exterior of text block, a little bumping at head & foot of spine; dust wrapper is price-clipped, some grubbiness to rear panel, some bumping at head of dw spine & a little light shelfwear along top edge

Between the Woods and the Water is the second in a series of three travel books narrating the author's journey on foot across Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933/34. It was preceded by A Time of Gifts (1977), which recounts Leigh Fermor's journey as far as the Middle Danube; and was followed and completed by The Broken Road (published posthumously in 2013), which takes the journey on to Constantinople.

Between the Woods and the Water, the middle book of the series which covers the middle section of his journey, begins with the author crossing the Mária Valéria bridge from Czechoslovakia into Hungary and ends when he reaches the Iron Gate, where the Danube formed the boundary between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Romania.

As with A Time of Gifts, this book has a truly stunning pictorial jacket design by John Craxton. It also includes beautifully-rendered map, detailing this stretch of Leigh Fermor’s journey (see photo). This is an extremely rare signed first printing of the first UK edition.

Leigh Fermor was widely regarded as Britain's greatest living travel writer during his lifetime, and he was once described him as "a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene." His wartime exploits on Crete were portrayed by Dirk Bogarde in the Powell/Pressburger film, Ill Met by Moonlight.

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, and please take a look at my other rare & collectable books for sale, including a number of other Patrick Leigh Fermor first editions and signed copies.

Postage is £4.90 within UK (Royal Mail 1^st Class Signed For). Please ask before bidding for international postage rates.