The author, the distinguished travel writer, Graecophile and WW II hero, set out in 1933, when he was eighteen, to walk to Constantinople with nothing more than he could carry in his haversack. He describes the people he met en route as he followed the Rhine and the Danube, sleeping in barns and fairy-tale castles. By the end of the first book he has reached Hungary. In the second he continues across the Hungarian plain and the marches of Transylvania towards his ultimate goal, brilliantly describing the people and the countryside as well as eruditely reflecting on the history of this romantic region. Both books are a feast. All that is lacking now is a third volume to complete the story.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 33 February 2006 ) |
