The Broken Road (travel book)

The Broken Road
First edition
EditorArtemis Cooper, Colin Thubron
AuthorPatrick Leigh Fermor
Cover artistJohn Craxton, Ed Kluz
GenreTravel book
PublisherJohn Murray
Publication date
2013

The Broken Road (2013) is a travel book by British author Patrick Leigh Fermor. Published posthumously by John Murray, the book, edited and introduced by his biographer Artemis Cooper and travel writer Colin Thubron,[1] narrates almost all of the final section of the author's journey on foot across Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933 and '34.[2]

The first book, A Time of Gifts (1977), narrates Leigh Fermor's journey as far as the Middle Danube. The second volume, Between the Woods and the Water (1986), 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. He never published the third volume, but in 2011 Leigh Fermor's publisher, John Murray announced that it would publish the final volume, drawing from his diary at the time and an early draft that he wrote in the 1960s,[3] subsequently releasing it in September 2013.[4]

The cover design is by Ed Kluz; John Craxton who designed the other volumes, had died in 2009.[5]

  1. ^ Fermor, Patrick Leigh (25 April 2019). The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor | Hachette UK - John Murray Press. ISBN 9781848547544.
  2. ^ Worth, Robert F. (7 March 2014). "A Walk Through Time". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  3. ^ "Patrick Leigh Fermor's final volume will be published" The Guardian 20 December 2011
  4. ^ "The Broken Road: retracing the steps of a wild adventure" Adrian Bridge The Telegraph 12 September 2013
  5. ^ "The story of a cover: The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor", The Beagle blog of John Murray