A Time of Gifts (TOG) is one of the classics of travel literature, written by Patrick Leigh Fermor and published in 1977 when he was 62. It is the first of two books, the second being entitled Between the Woods and the Water. TOG is an account of an overland walking trip from the Hook of Holland to Hungary in 1933/34. The second book takes the story from Hungary to the Danube.`

The reason for the long delay is the loss of the authors diaries, which were found many years later in a castle in Romania and returned to him.

Much of the charm of the book comes from the fusion of the immediacy and excitement of an eighteen year old boy's reactions to a great adventure with the reflections of a cultured and sophistocated man of the world.

The author could not have chosen a more exciting time to cross these lands. The Communists had not yet taken over the East, monarchies survived in the Balkans and remnants of the old regime were to be seen in Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Hungary. In Germany, Hitler had just come to power, but the worst of his abuses were not yet in evidence.

The author has a firm grip on European history, culture and art, so the work is far more than travelogue. He meets a facinating array of people, from from the inhabitants of workers hostels to down-on-their luck Austrian counts at home in their castles. He writes about how the landscapes he encountered and the human physical types were familiar from the Dutch and German masters.

The courage of this wartime hero are to be seen in the 18 year old boy as he comes up against some tight spots ( some involving females!).