Roumeli is not to be found on maps of present-day Greece. Seduced by the strangeness and beauty of the name, Patrick Leigh Fermor has taken the title formerly used to describe Northern Greece to cover his random wanderings through this exotic region. Sharing in the celebrations of a wedding among the Sarakatsan Nomads, sleeping in the monastery of St Barlaam high on the mountainside, sitting by the fireside sipping ouzo and devouring a succulent leg of lamb and retsina-soaked apples, he recalls his travels amid the people of Northern Greece and, delving into history, produces a blend of past and present.