Along the Enchanted Way
Book description
Chosen for the Duchess of Cornwall's online book club The Reading Room by HRH The Prince of Wales
When William Blacker first crossed the snow-bound passes of northern Romania, he stumbled upon an almost medieval world.
There, for many years he lived side by side with the country people, a…
Why read it?
4 authors picked Along the Enchanted Way as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
A beautifully written account of an Englishman who ventures to rural Romania and ends up staying after he falls for a gypsy girl.
The author captures a seemingly idyllic, pastoral way of life and describes it with such grace that I was left longing to join him swinging a scythe in the hay meadows or sitting by a crackling wood stove after a day of splitting logs.
Although the book covers a period of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, the world Blacker documents could be from a century ago. It’s a moving, wistful, sometimes amusing, and eventually poignant account…
A unique book. Read this and you'll find yourself in a disappearing world. Northern Romania eschewed the modern conveniences and less delicate touches of capitalism for most of the twentieth century. Blacker shares a life wholly dictated by the rhythms of nature. This is a world where the locals recognise someone visiting from another village at a distance, not by their face or their clothes, but by the horse they are riding.
From Tristan's list on for intelligent travellers.
Another book that inspired my own travels – and that of many others through my travel company, Wild Frontiers – this book tells the story of the author’s 12 years in Romania after the fall of the communist regime. Taking one back to a bucolic world of horse-drawn carts, farmers scything hay, fairy tale castles, wooden churches, and medieval villages, it is romantic travel writing at its best; the fact that William actually marries a young gypsy woman adds to the soul of this quixotic tale. I loved it so much (with Williams's help) I set up a trip to…
From Jonny's list on escapism and travel.
I fell in love with this book as much as I fell in love with Romania. I adored the honest and poetic way the author captured the country’s landscapes and ethnically diverse peoples at a time of great change in its history.
Blacker travelled from England to Romania just after the fall of communism. He settled and lived among peasants in a rural world, frozen in time, and clashes with social norms when he falls for a gypsy girl.
If you want to understand Romania, this memoir will take you a long way along the road. If you want to…
From Jacqueline's list on Romania and her people.
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