Traveller's Century

I just watched the remaining episode of Traveller's Century, having seen the other two earlier in the year. This one about Eric Newby was perhaps the one I least enjoyed, as it seemed to involve more of the intrepid Benedict Allen (and his scarf) recreating the journey detailed in the late Mr Newby's book, A Short Walk Up The Hindu Kush than it concentrated on the book itself. But the other two episodes on Laurie Lee (whose work I was familiar with) and Patrick Leigh Fermor (whose work I wasn't familiar with but should have been, considering he's a bit of a Byron obsessive) were very enjoyable. In the wake of all the blokey celebrity travel shows hitting the screens lately (Stephen Fry, Paul Merton, etc), it was good to be reminded of a time before Michael Palin was the last word in travel journalism.

Leigh Fermor still hasn't published what would arguably be the most interesting part of his travel journals - about the end of his convoluted walk across Europe to Greece - he seems to have been distracted by being an unlikely war hero, as mythologised in the Powell and Pressburger film Ill Met By Moonlight. But he's still alive, having stayed in Greece. That episode is still forthcoming and well worth a look.

[Additional Nov 16th: I've now read a collection of Fermor's stuff - Words Of Mercury - and when he's good he's great ( I think his whole books might require one to have had a classical education to understand all the references). They make Greece seem tremendously attractive and have set me further on a trail of Byzantine art history which started with seeing AGD's series earlier in the year...]