Travel writer Fermor learning to type

LONDON, March 2 (UPI) -- British travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor revealed that only now -- at age 92 -- is he learning to type.

He's learning, he said, so he can finish the trilogy that has been at the core of his writing life for more than three decades, The Guardian reported.

Since the late 1980s, Fermor has worked to complete the trilogy depicting his journey on foot from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, to Constantinople, Turkey -- now Istanbul -- at age 18.

He wrote the first volume of the trilogy, "A Time of Gifts," in 1977. The second, "Between the Woods and the Water," was released in 1986.

The final installment has been slower in coming.

Fermor, as with others of his generation, turned over to his publisher manuscripts written in longhand, which some said accounted for the lapse between his works.

He said he realized that his handwriting has degenerated as he grew older, so he invested in a typewriter.

"I wouldn't get a computer," said Fermor.

Instead, he invested in a 1951 Olivetti typewriter.

"I'm going to finish that book," he said. "I'm going home and I'm going to work really hard."