A Time of Gifts; Between the Woods and the Water; The Broken Road. Leigh Fermor, Patrick; Artemis Cooper [Editor]; [Daphne Fielding] First Edition

First editions of each volume in Leigh Fermor's trilogy. Octavo, original cloth, pictorial endpapers, illustrated with maps. A Time of Gifts is signed by Patrick Leigh Fermor on the front free endpaper. Between the Woods and the Water is an association copy, lengthily inscribed by Patrick Leigh Fermor on the front free endpaper to Daphne Fielding with with a large ink sketch of a cloudy beach scene covering the entire page, "To darling Daphne, with tons of fond love from Paddy." The recipient, Daphne Fielding (1904â "1997) was a British socialite and writer whose memoirs and biographical works offered a vivid portrait of aristocratic life in the early twentieth century. Born Daphne Vivian, daughter of the 4th Baron Vivian, she married Henry Thynne, 6th Marquess of Bath, and became Marchioness of Bath before their divorce in 1953. Fielding was closely connected to the â Bright Young Thingsâ â "a group of bohemian aristocrats and artists whose flamboyant lifestyles captured public imagination in interwar Britainâ "and maintained friendships with many prominent literary figures, including Evelyn Waugh. Waugh, who shared her interest in the idiosyncrasies of upper-class life, dedicated his 1957 novelÂThe Ordeal of Gilbert PinfoldÂto Fielding and her best-known works includedÂThe Nearest Way HomeÂ(1970), a memoir of her unconventional upbringing, andÂThe Duchess of Jermyn Street (1978), a biography of her mother-in-law, Daisy Fellowes. With wit, candor, and an insiderâ s perspective, Fielding documented a vanishing world of privilege, eccentricity, and decline within the British upper classes. The Broken Road, which was published posthumously, is signed by editor Artemis Cooper on the title page. Each are near fine to fine in very good to fine dust jackets. Jacket artwork by John Craxton. An exceptional association. At the age of eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set off from the heart of London on an epic journey to walk to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the rich account of his adventures as far as Hungary, after which Between the Woods and the Water continues the story to the Iron Gates that divide the Carpathian and Balkan mountains. Jan Morris called it "[n]othing short of a masterpiece." "Rightly considered to be among the most beautiful travel books in the language" (Independent). "[Patrick Leigh Fermor] stands beside Robert Byron as the finest travel writer of his generation" (Colin Thubron).