THE LEIGH FERMOR HOUSE
IMAGE SOURCES
Patrick Leigh Fermor in Kardamyli, 1967.Photograph: Joan Leigh Fermor From Olivia Stewart’s archive © Joan Leigh Fermor Estate
Patrick Leigh Fermor on a kaiki on Hydra, 1959. Benaki Museum / Ghika Gallery Photographic Archive
Patrick Leigh Fermor and Billy Stanley Moss (below) with their Cretan comrades. Standing (from the left) are Stratis Saviolakis, Manolis Paterakis, Antonis Papaleonidas, Giorgos Tyrakis, Nikos Komis and seated (left) Grigoris Hnarakis. Photograph: © The Estate of William Stanley Moss.
Patrick Leigh Fermor wearing a traditional Cretan costume, c.1944. Benaki Museum / Donation of Patrick & Joan Leigh Fermor
Portrait of Joan by Paddy, 1946. Charcoal on paper, 15X10 cm. Benaki Museum / Donation of Patrick & Joan Leigh Fermor
From Olivia Stewart’s archive
Patrick Leigh Fermor with Giorgos Katsimbalis and Giorgios Seferis in Athens, 1951. George Katsimbalis Collection (G. Katsimbalis Photographic Archive)
Niko Ghika and Patrick Leigh Fermor in Ghika’s studio, Hydra 1955.Photograph: Joan Leigh Fermor. Benaki Museum / Ghika Gallery, Photographic Archive
Niko Ghika with Joan, Hydra 1955. Benaki Museum / Ghika Gallery, Photographic Archive
Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Wild Garden, 1959. Oil on canvas, 113 x 144 cm Benaki Museum ΠΧΓ57
The cover of the first edition of Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (1958) by John Craxton. Benaki Museum © John Craxton Estate
Dedication by Paddy to Joan in his book Mani, Kardamyli 1958. Benaki Museum / Donation of Patrick & Joan Leigh Fermor
John Craxton Gorge, 1960. Oil on canvas, 104.5 x 83.7 cm Private collection, Rome © John Craxton Estate
Drawing by Paddy in a letter to Joan (in 1962), mapping the plot where the house was going to be built. Benaki Museum / Donation of Patrick & Joan Leigh Fermor
Sanctification in Kardamyli during the construction of their house, 1964. Benaki Museum / Donated by Olivia Stewart
Patrick Leigh Fermor in front of the tent where he stayed with Joan during the construction of the Ηouse, 1964 Photograph: Joan Leigh Fermor Benaki Museum / Donated by Olivia Stewart © Joan Leigh Fermor Estate
Drawing by Leigh Fermor on a letter addressed to Joan. Benaki Museum / Donation of Patrick & Joan Leigh Fermor
Patrick Leigh Fermor on the roof of the House during its construction. Photograph: Joan Leigh Fermor From Olivia Stewart’s archive © Joan Leigh Fermor Estate
Paddy with the workmen during the construction of the House. Photograph: Joan Leigh Fermor From Olivia Stewart’s archive © Joan Leigh Fermor Estate
Niko Ghika drawing in the niche at the Leigh Fermor house, 1970. Benaki Museum / Ghika Gallery, Photographic Archive
Paddy and Joan at the house in Kardamyli. From Olivia Stewart’s archive
George Seferis at the house in Kardamyli Photograph: Joan Leigh Fermor From Olivia Stewart’s Archive © Joan Leigh Fermor Estate
Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Painted table, Kardamyli, 1989. Benaki Museum / Ghika Gallery Donation of Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor
John Betjeman, A Few Late Chrysanthemums (London: John Murray 1954). Copy from the house in Kardamyli with a handwritten inscription of the writer “Inscribed in the Messenian Gulf, John Betjeman for Paddy…1969 September”. Benaki Museum
Γιώργος Σεφέρης, Ποιήματα (Athens: Ikaros 1964). Copy from the house in Kardamyli with a handwritten inscription “To Ioanna of Kardamyli with love George Seferis” Benaki Museum
Freya Stark, Beyond Euphrates. Autobiography 1928-1933 (London: John Murray1951). Copy from the house in Kardamyli with a handwritten inscription “Inscribed by Freya Stark for Joan & Paddy” Benaki Museum
Patrick Leigh Fermor in Kardamyli. Benaki Museum / Ghika Gallery, Photographic Archive
Paddy at the village of Petrovouni, above Kardamyli. Photograph: Olivia Stewart From Olivia Stewart’s archive
Joan at the hayiati in Kardamyli, 2002. Photograph: Olivia Stewart From Olivia Stewart’s archive
Bust of Patrick Leigh Fermor by the sculptor Praxitelis Tzanoulinos. 2019, bronze Leigh Fermor House
Impression of the seal used by Patrick Leigh Fermor. The name and address are written in his own handwriting: Patrick Leigh Fermor Kardamyli Messinia
Τhe Benaki Museum during the 1930s. Benaki Museum / Photographic Archive
Τhe Leigh Fermor House today. Photographs: Leonidas Kourgiantakis, Vassilis Paschalis Benaki Museum
TEXT SOURCES
1Patrick Leigh Fermor, Mani Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (London: John Murray Publishers 2004) ix-x.
2Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts (London: John Murray Publishers 2013) 3.
3Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts (London: John Murray Publishers 2013) 17-18.
4The account of the kidnapping operation, along with excerpts from his military reports from Crete will be published, following Leigh Fermor’s death, in his book Abducting A General – The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete (London: John Murray 2014). Regarding Leigh Fermor’s actions of resistance in Crete, see: Tasos Sakellaropoulos, Paddy, Michalis, Filedem; Yannis Skalidakis, Patrick Leigh Fermor in Crete under German occupation; and Chris White, Patrick Leigh Fermor in Crete: Myths, Realities and Surprises, in: PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. The Journey Continues (= journal MOUSEIO BENAKI, 9th Supplement, 2017) 85-98, 99-106 & 107-117 respectively.
5From a letter by Billy Stanley Moss to Paddy, who hadn’t yet met Joan, dated 5/12/1944, in: Artemis Cooper, Patrick Leigh Fermor An Adventure (London: John Murray Publishers, 2013) 200.
6Photographs of Joan Leigh Fermor have been published in: Olivia Stewart – Ian Collins, Τhe Photographs of Joan Leigh Fermor Artist and Lover (London: Haus Publishing 2018) and Olivia Stewart, Τhe Outward Gaze, The Photographs of Joan Leigh Fermor (Bridgwater: Class Professional Publishing 2024).
7This journey is the source of inspiration for the first book by Leigh Fermor, The Traveller’s Tree: A Journey through the Caribbean Islands (London: John Murray Publishers 1950) and for his only novel The Violins of Saint-Jacques (London: John Murray Publishers 1953).
8The experience of his stay in the monasteries in Normandy and Cappadocia are described in his book A Time to Keep Silence (London: John Murray Publishers 1953).
9 The friendship of the three is described in the book: Evita Arapoglou (ed.), GHIKAS – CRAXTON – LEIGH FERMOR, Charmed Lives in Greece (texts by Evita Arapoglou, Ian Collins, Michael Llewellyn-Smith & Ioanna Moraiti, Nicosia: A.G. Leventis Gallery 2017) John Craxton (1922-2009) illustrated the covers for the first editions of Leigh Fermor’s books.
10Of great interest is the correspondence between the Nobel Prize winner poet George Seferis (1900-1971) and the Leigh Fermors: F.A. Dimitrakopoulos - V.D. Lambropoulou (eds), George Seferis, P.L.Fermor J.Rayner. Correspondence (1948-1971) Nicosia: Center for Scientific Research 2007. For the friendship of Leigh Fermor with Seferis, see: Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Patrick Leigh Fermor and George Seferis: portrait of a friendship, in: PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. The Journey Continues (= journal MOUSEIO BENAKI, 9th Supplement, 2017) 149-157.
11The politician and former prime minister of Greece Tzannis Tzannetakis (1927-2010), due to his close friendship with Leigh Fermor, undertook the first translation of the book Mani in Greek, while being in exile on the island of Kythira by the dictatorship during the period 1969-1971. In the introduction to the book Tzannettakis writes: “Within this environment and under the imaginary shadow of the Taygetos mountain, I felt the duty to offer something to my homeland. So I began translating the Mani by Patrick Leigh Fermor”.
12Evita Arapoglou (ed.), GHIKAS – CRAXTON – LEIGH FERMOR, Charmed Lives in Greece (texts by Evita Arapoglou, Ian Collins, Michael Llewellyn-Smith & Ioanna Moraiti, Nicosia: A.G. Leventis Gallery 2017) 54
13 Patrick Leigh Fermor, Travel, in the journal published in Athens by the Gennadius Library The New Griffon 6 (2003) 23.
14 Patrick Leigh Fermor, Greece, in: Alvilde Lees-Milne (ed.), The Englishman’s Room (London: Viking 1986) 92.
15From a letter to Ann Fleming dated November 1966, in: Adam Sisman (ed.), Dashing for the Post. The Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor (London: John Murray Publishers 2017) 249.
16From a letter to Balasha Cantacuzène dated July 1966, in: Adam Sisman (ed.), Dashing for the Post. The Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor (London: John Murray Publishers 2017) 241.
17Ιoanna Providi, Patrick Leigh Fermor and Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Ghika: their Greek and philhellenic circle, in: Patrick Leigh Fermor. The Journey Continues (= journal MOUSEIO BENAKI, 9th Supplement 2017) 138.
18Patrick Leigh Fermor, Greece, in: Alvilde Lees-Milne (ed.), The Englishman’s Room (London: Viking 1986) 92, 95.
19All of Leigh Fermor’s books were published by the historic publishing house John Murray in London (founded in 1768), who had also published books by great names such as Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Lord Byron and Charles Darwin amongst others.
20Patrick Leigh Fermor, The Broken Road. From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos (edited by Colin Thubron – Artemis Cooper, London: John Murray Publishers 2014) 154.
21 His impressions from the trip are published in: Three Letters from the Andes (London: John Murray Publishers 1991).
22 From Paddy’s letter to Billa Harrod, Kardamyli, dated 2004, in: Olivia Stewart – Ian Collins, Τhe Photographs of Joan Leigh Fermor Artist and Lover (London: Haus Publishing 2018) 272-273.
23 Patrick Leigh Fermor, The Broken Road. From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos (edited by Colin Thubron – Artemis Cooper (London: John Murray Publishers 2014) xvii.
24 Artemis Cooper, Patrick Leigh Fermor An Adventure (London: John Murray Publishers, 2013) 389.
25Platon Mavromoustakos, Re-unpacking the Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor Library, in: Patrick Leigh Fermor. The Journey Continues (= journal MOUSEIO BENAKI, 9th Supplement, 2017) 247.
26Patrick Leigh Fermor, Travel, in the journal published in Athens by the Gennadius Library The New Griffon 6 (2003) 19.
27From a letter to Deborah Devonshire dated 1st May 1996 in: Charlotte Mosley (ed.), In Tearing Haste Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor (London: John Murray Publishers 2008) 308.