Product Description

Spanning the first twenty-three years of his remarkable life, Laurie Lee’s celebrated autobiographical trilogy is presented here in one delightful volume. Beginning with ‘Cider with Rosie’, Laurie Lee writes evocatively of his idyllic childhood in the Cotswolds of the twenties, a world of rich sensuousness and native innocence. ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’ picks up the story as he leaves his valley for London and then for Spain. There, equipped only with a violin and his wits, he crossed the dramatic landscape of a vibrant and still almost medieval Spain for which he developed an abiding affection. In the winter of 1937 he returned to a country now in the grip of Civil War and joined the International Brigade, describing in ‘A Moment of War’ his journey into the dark side of Spain with unsparing honesty and poignancy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20775 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Customer Reviews

One of the best books I have ever read
This collection of Laurie Lee's autobiographical works is absolutely fantastic. In "Cider With Rosie", the poetry of Lee's prose evocatively captures his early life in a Cotswold village in the years following World War 1. I was completely riveted to the subsequent story of his travels through Spain during the 1930's in the build up to the Civil War. In this day and age, to contemplate walking across Spain and through the Sierras with only a violin and a few dried biscuits is just unbelievable. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in travelling.

A Real Vision of the Past.
The contrast between some of the scenes described in this book could not be starker. From the rural Cotswolds of the 1920's to The Spanish Civil war the author describes landscapes and people with a light touch that is highly successful.
The descriptions of the Cotswolds as working rural landscapes in Cider with Rosie are fascinating, and are a marked contrast to the way in which the region is seen today. Equally interesting is the depiction of rural poverty at this time. Works such as The Road to Wigan Pier have focused attention on the urban poor at this time, but the rural poor did not live in some bucolic paradise. The section of the books with deal with the Spanish Civil war are heart breaking in both the acts they describe and because of the loss of belief we seem to have suffered - would an International Brigade be formed today?
Taken as a single volume the 3 books published here are an account of a young man coming of age in world that was about to change forever and as such are a record of a lost world. Some of the values of the world are as relevant today as they ever have been, and this collection of books deserves to be widely read.

Enthrelling
I have always had an interest in Spain and the second and thirds books of the trilogy captivated me. It gives a view of Spain that lasted until the end of the Franco regime. Laurie Lee's discriptive powers fill the mind with vivid pictures of a life none of us in the modern day world will ever experience.