A Time To Keep Silence.

Limited first edition of the author's third book, one of 500 numbered copies, this is number 75, regarding his experiences in various monasteries. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated by John Craxton. Association copy, inscribed by Leigh Fermor to Daphne and Xan Fielding in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, "To Daphne and Xan, with love from Paddy London 18.iii.1953." The recipient Daphne Fielding was a British socialite and memoirist best known for The Duchess of Jermyn Street and The Nearest Way Home, offer valuable insight into the world of the “Bright Young Things” and the decline of the English upper classes. Xan Fielding was a British writer and former SOE operative whose travel memoirs and wartime accounts, notably Hide and Seek, blend adventurous narrative with rich cultural insights from the Mediterranean and Middle East. After the fall of Crete in May 1941, he joined the Special Operations Executive, and was eventually landed in Crete with a supply of weapons and explosives by the submarine Torbay, under Commander Anthony Miers. Fielding teamed up with Patrick Leigh Fermor, and built an intelligence gathering network which provided detailed information on the movement of Axis troops, shipping, and air transport. He arranged for the transportation to Egypt of hundreds of Allied soldiers left behind after the evacuation, and now being hidden by the Cretans. After six months Fielding returned to Cairo, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 15 October 1942. Very good in a very good dust jacket. A remarkable association copy, linking these two great heroes and writers.