A great evocation of places and times. Fermer was a young Briton who schlepped across Europe in the mid-1930's. Yet he looks back on it from the perspective of old age. To me, he is the epitome of the slightly aristocratic English academic with knowledge across an astonishing breadth - yet who remains engaged with the world. The real-life type of John LeCarre's spymasters.returnreturnThe book has a certain leisurelyness that can grate, but once I got into the rhythmn it carried me along.