Mani and germs of stories

Tonight is the final installment of Traveller's Century and features Patrick Leigh Fremor.

He has been described as a combination of James Bond and Grahame Greene, but really his prose is magnificent.

I first discovered his work in Crete. My dh had bought The Cretan Runner with his introduction. Fremor was one of the British officers serving undercover and had a large hand in the capture of the German general. The events are portrayed in the movie -- Ill Met by Moonlight.

Anyway, the upcoming programme has been excuse to reread Mani. This is his book about the Mani region in Greece in the 1950s. I am finding that I read with my notebook open, taking notes for possible stories. He tends to go off on tangents. For example, about how the last Bey of the Mani was possibly descended from mermaids and the fact that if your last name is Connolly, you are possibly related to selkies, according some Celtic sources. Or the fact that the last descendant of the Byzantine Emperors ended up in a London orphanage in the late 17th century. Query -- what happened to her afterwards, and did she know who she was? And what has happened to all the nymphs who haunted the lonely pools and streams? Why in Greece folk lore do you need to capture handkerchiefs but in Celtic folklore, it is the Selkie's skin? And was the mermaid really a deaf and dumb shipwrecked Venetian princess?

The book yields up its gems and is certainly worth rereading. The imagery is complex, but accessible.

My jottings may come to something, or nothing, but it is wonderful when you start to have ideas for stories raining down on you.

I adore his command of the English language as well. The way with a few word, he paints such wonderful word pictures.

Tatterdemalion sent me rushing for the dictionary-- just make sure that I did actually know what the word meant. But it is one of those words that simply trips off the tongue.

Another bonus of Benedict Allen's short series has been my dd has finally discovered Laurie Lee and has spent the last week inhaling his works. Cider With Rosie and As I Walked Out One Midsummer's Morning speak across the generations. She decided that they were far easier erads than Vanity Fair.

So if you get a chance, watch the programme, but better yet read the books.

Oh and I am looking at The Creative Habit again. As ever, Tharp yields ideas and offers possible pathways...

Reaching the teen years

My youngest officially becomes a teen this year.In fact today. 13 years ago, it was decided that the babe was cooked and I should be induced. So he arrived a couple of weeks early. The day with its sights and sounds is embedded on my memory.
Time simply marches and babies do not keep. Neither do teenagers...
I am so glad that I was able to stay at home with my children and look after them.
In the wake of Francesco, comes a BBC 4 series about three great traveller writers of the 20th century --Eric Newby, Laurie Lee and Patrick Leigh Fermor. Last night's episode was on Eric Newby. Absolutely fascinating. Everyone in the family enjoyed it.
What can I say except it would be hard to do them justice because their words are so wonderful. If you have not read their travel books, you have not lived. Hopefully Benedict Allen's series will help raise their profile. Equally maybe the BBC will put this on BBC2 so that a large majority of the public can see.
Patrick Leigh Fremor is still alive (over 90) and hope remains that he will actually finish his trilogy about his journey across Europe in the 1930s... Sir Paddy served in Crete during WW2 and some of his exploits are recounted in Ill Met by Moonlight. He has been described as a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Grahame Greene.
The next episode is on Laurie Lee who is probably best known for Cider With Rose but who also wrote a masterful account of Spain during the Spanish Civil War.