Paddy wanted to correct Ann Fleming's version of his embarrassing visit to Maugham, which she had exaggerated — with shattered drinking glasses and blood on the floor — to amuse Evelyn Waugh. Maugham had asked Ann to bring Paddy with her for dinner, and then (always generous to good-looking young authors) had invited him to stay on as his guest and write at the villa. Unnerved by Maugham's severe expression and icy manner, Paddy drank far too much. Falling victim to the perverse tendency to talk about the very thing he was strictly forbidden to mention — Maugham's debilitating speech defect — Paddy quoted the absurd belief that everyone in the College of Heralds had a stammer. That was bad enough. But noting that the day was the Feast of the Assumption, he mentioned Correggio's painting of that subject in the Louvre and repeated a stammering friend's bon mot: "That is a m-most un-un-w-warrantable as-assumption."

Deeply offended, Maugham became even icier. Rising from the table and taking his leave, he rescinded his invitation by saying: "G-G-Goodbye. Y-Y-You will have left b-b-before I am up in the m-m-morning." The wretched Paddy, who had not intended to wound his host, contrived to make matters even worse. Instead of waiting for the valet to pack his bag, he hastily threw his things together and caught a precious monogrammed sheet trimmed with Belgian lace in the zipper of his suitcase. He rushed down the stairs with the rest of the sheet trailing behind, frantically tore part of it off and escaped from the villa with shreds of fabric hanging out of his bag.

After our talk, Paddy signed some travel books I'd brought along. Specially buying another one, Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (1958), in the village shop, he inscribed it, surrounding his words with a cloud and a sketch of birds flying around the title page. When he mentioned bees and my daughter used the unusual word for "buzz" — zouzounizo — which he hadn't heard for years, he praised her fluency in Greek. After drinks in his house Paddy invited all of us to dinner at a simple restaurant, set on a promontory overlooking the glistening sea, which he'd bought for Lela, his former and now ancient cook. I noticed that the cook's son Giorgos — who greeted us warmly in excellent English and recommended the best dishes — was tall, blond, blue-eyed and very un-Greek looking.

Paddy, who didn't see well at night, asked me to drive him home in his battered old Peugeot, which had stiff gears, negligible brakes and holes in the rusted metal of the floor. As we went down a steep hill towards the sea, which had no barrier, I suddenly realised that the brakes didn't work and had to swerve violently to avoid submersion. Paddy, who'd had many close calls, was jovial and unconcerned about the dangerous episode. My instinctive feeling that Giorgos was Paddy's son was confirmed when my daughter returned to Athens and impressed her Greek friends, who knew the truth, by mentioning that she'd dined with a national hero.

Paddy was the Byron of our time. Both men had an idealised vision of Greece, were scholars and men of action, could endure harsh conditions, fought for Greek freedom, were recklessly courageous, liked to dress up and displayed a panache that impressed their Greek comrades. Paddy also reminded me of a Bedouin chief's tribute to another famous warrior, T.E. Lawrence: "Tell them in England what I say. Of manhood, the man, in freedom free; a mind without equal; I can see no flaw in him."