''A Time to Keep Silence'' (1953) is a
travel book by British author
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greates ...
. It describes Fermor's sojourns in monasteries across Europe, and is praised by
William Dalrymple as a "sublime masterpiece".
This was an early publication from the
Queen Anne Press
The Queen Anne Press (logo stylized QAP) is a small publisher (originally a private press).
History
It was created in 1951 by Lord Kemsley, proprietor of ''The Sunday Times'', to publish the works of contemporary authors. In 1952, as a wedding ...
, a small private press, created in 1951 by
Lord Kemsley, proprietor of the ''
Sunday Times''. In 1952 Kemsley made Leigh Fermor's friend
Ian Fleming its managing director.
[Pearson, John. ''The Life of Ian Fleming'', p.188. McGraw-Hill, 1966.] The press concentrated on producing finely printed and bound editions, often with small limitations. ''A Time to Keep Silence'' was printed in a
limited edition
The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...
of 500 copies with illustrations by
John Craxton
John Leith Craxton RA, (3 October 1922 – 17 November 2009) was an English painter. He was sometimes called a neo-Romantic artist but he preferred to be known as a "kind of Arcadian".
Biography
Career
John was the son of musician Harold ...
.
After revision, an open edition was published by
John Murray in 1957. This was republished by Penguin in 1988 with a new foreword written in 1982.
The monasteries discussed include the
Abbey of Saint Wandrille
Fontenelle Abbey or the Abbey of St. Wandrille is a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Rives-en-Seine. It was founded in 649 near Caudebec-en-Caux in Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France.
First foundation
It was founded by Wandregisel or ...
,
Solesmes Abbey
Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes'') is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Guà ...
and
La Grande Trappe. He also describes a visit to the abandoned
rock monasteries of
Cappadocia
Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde.
According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...
near Urgub. At St Wandrille he initially experienced a strong sense of depression, restlessness, insomnia and loneliness but this 'miserable bridge-passage' cleared after a few days. He grew to admire the scholarship and learning of the
Benedictine Order there and benefited from the rhythm of the daily cycle. In contrast, he found the life at the
Trappist
The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...
monastery incomprehensibly austere. He concludes the essay with a brief overview of English monasticism.
The title is from the
Book of Ecclesiastes ().
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Time to Keep Silence, A
1953 non-fiction books
British travel books
Christian monastic literature
NYRB Classics