Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese
First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Patrick Leigh Fermor |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Travel |
| Publisher | John Murray |
Publication date | 1958 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 320 |
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese is a travel book by English author Patrick Leigh Fermor, published in 1958.[1] It covers his journey with his wife Joan and friend Xan Fielding around the Mani peninsula in southern Greece.
Travel
The book chronicles Leigh Fermor's travels around the Mani peninsula in southern mainland Greece. The region is typically viewed as inhospitable and isolated from much of the remainder of Greece due its harsh geography. The Taygetus mountains run down the middle of the peninsula, limiting most settlements to small villages on or near the coast. The journey begins near Kalamata, and proceeds south along the Mani coastline (mostly by boat or caique), ending in the town of Gytheon.
Leigh Fermor's book almost never mentions his travelling companions, and only rarely delves into first-person experiences. Much of the book concentrates on the history of the Maniots and of their larger place in Greek and European history; the middle portion contains lengthy digressions on art history, icons, religion, and myth in Maniot society.
His future wife Joan accompanied him on the trip and took a number of photographs for the original version of the book.[2]
The cover of the book was designed by John Craxton.[3]
Reception
Mani is sometimes listed as a companion volume to Leigh Fermor's Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece.[4]
Translation
The book was translated into Greek by future prime minister Tzannis Tzannetakis while he was internal exile imposed by the Greek military junta. The translation was revised after his release with Leigh Fermor, who added a further chapter on the olive harvest:[5] this appeared in English for the first time in 2021.[6]
Later life
Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor later settled in the Mani peninsula, living in a house near Kardamyli that the two designed and built.
References
- ^ Leigh Fermor, Patrick (1984) [1958]. Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-140-11511-6. OCLC 462091129. Retrieved 13 January 2026.
- ^ Veronica Horwell (17 June 2003). "Obituary: Joan Leigh Fermor | Global". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
- ^ "Biography – John Craxton 1922-2009". Retrieved 9 February 2024.
- ^ Thubron, Colin (29 September 2011). "Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915–2011)". The New York Review. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
- ^ Cooper, Artemis (2013). Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure. John Murray. pp. 349–350. ISBN 978-0-719-56549-6. OCLC 879334984.
- ^ Leigh Fermor, Patrick (29 July 2021). "Swish! Swish! Swish!". London Review of Books. Vol. 43, no. 15. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
Further reading
- Seifried, Rebecca M.; Gardner, Chelsea A. M.; Tatum, Maria (2023). "Mapping the Leigh Fermors' journey through the Deep Mani in 1951". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 118: 417–440. doi:10.1017/S0068245423000023. The authors recreate and retrace the itinerary of Patrick Leigh Fermor and his wife Joan to both understand how people might have interacted with Mani's landscape before the construction of the modern road network, and as a contribution to the field of computational archaeology.