Artemis Cooper
Word has reached me that the biography of Paddy by Artemis Cooper is now completed and is going through the final editorial stages. The much anticipated book will be published by John Murray and is likely to hit the bookshops in October.
Artemis is Paddy’s literary executor and a good friend. Her father, the historian John Julius Norwich being a friend of Paddy’s for many years. She has had exclusive access to Paddy’s archive and will be able to fill in many of the gaps in his life story, including more details about the last stage of his 1934 journey through Bulgaria, Romania, and Thrace to Constantinople. We are all hopeful that her next project will be the completion of ‘Volume Three’, the book that Paddy was unable to complete despite attempts over many years.
I hope to bring you more news about the biography, which will be called ‘An Adventure’, in the coming months.
To pre-order or purchase your copy click here.
Patrick Leigh Fermor 
Great news, can’t wait to see the book
In the letters between Deborah Devonshire and PLF, as they appear IN TEARING HASTE, the Duchess speaks about the spiritual and physical damage the Duke did to himself on account of his alcoholism, which nearly caused him his life. Of the many acts of courage and beneficence for which Andrew Cavendish deserves just credit, I can hardly think of one more deserving of praise than his recovery from that fatal disease. John Julius Norwich nor Artemis Cooper, sadly, did not have the opportunity to see Duff Cooper as he might have been if he had ever sobered up. When we take the time to praise famous men, it is not only the good they leave behind that is relevant (and what is more important) instructive. I am recalling the passage in A TIME TO KEEP SILENCE, when PLF at the Abbey of St. Wandrille de Fontanelle, “felt restless alone in my cell and depressed by the lack of alcohol.” I wonder what thoughts ran through PLF’s mind when Deborah Devonshire shared with him the struggles of her husband Andrew.