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Red Sky at Sunrise: Cider with Rosie; As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning; A Moment of War
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 Summer 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.
Cider With Rosie: "A prose poem that flashes and winks like a prism." - H.E. Bates
As I Walked Out One Summer Morning: "The vivid, sensitive, irresistibly readable story of what happened after he left home." - Daily Mail
A Moment of War: "A great heart-stopping narrative of one young Englishman's part in the war in Spain... crafted by a poet, stamping an indelible image of the boredom, random cruelty and stupidity of war." - John Sweeney in the Literary Review
The cover shows a portrait of Laurie Lee by Anthony Devas in the National Portrait Gallery, London
Cider With Rosie: "A prose poem that flashes and winks like a prism." - H.E. Bates
As I Walked Out One Summer Morning: "The vivid, sensitive, irresistibly readable story of what happened after he left home." - Daily Mail
A Moment of War: "A great heart-stopping narrative of one young Englishman's part in the war in Spain... crafted by a poet, stamping an indelible image of the boredom, random cruelty and stupidity of war." - John Sweeney in the Literary Review
The cover shows a portrait of Laurie Lee by Anthony Devas in the National Portrait Gallery, London
537 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
106 people are currently reading
594 people want to read
About the author
Laurie Lee
81 books273 followersLaurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE, was an English poet, novelist, and screenwriter. His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie (1959), As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991). While the first volume famously recounts his childhood in the idyllic Slad Valley, the second deals with his leaving home for London and his first visit to Spain in 1934, and the third with his return in December 1937 to join the Republican International Brigade.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
July 23, 2021
With Red Sky at Sunrise, Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy comes together into one volume. The first book, Cider with Rosie, is an ode to an idyllic childhood in a Gloucestershire village in the twenties and thirties. When wanderlust prodded Lee into undertaking life on the road in the second book, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, he tramped as a casual laborer in London and then across Spain as a busking fiddler. His Spanish travels led to the third book, A Moment of War, recounting his bumbling stint in the army of the Spanish Republic during the civil war of the late thirties. Lee did not join the fight out of anti-fascist zeal. His enlistment followed a confused love affair compounded by a bewildered naiveté which almost got him shot on more than one occasion.
Lee's trilogy, especially the first volume, is heartwarming. He evokes a wistful nostalgia for a way of life forever gone and captures the poignancy of time's passage and its impact upon those people and places close to our hearts. Lee wrote: “The last days of my childhood were also the last days of the village. I belonged to that generation which saw, by chance, the end of a thousand years' life.” He regretted the loss – and succeeded in making the reader regret it too.
As a chronicle of one young man's transition from an isolated and self-sufficient existence into the midst of the world's murky struggle against the dark forces of modernity, Lee's story is humorous and moving. He recounts the conversion from the old ways to the new – and does so with lyrical prose and consummate pacing. I recommend Red Sky at Sunrise to readers of all ages. Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy earned a Five Star position on my bookshelf.
Lee's trilogy, especially the first volume, is heartwarming. He evokes a wistful nostalgia for a way of life forever gone and captures the poignancy of time's passage and its impact upon those people and places close to our hearts. Lee wrote: “The last days of my childhood were also the last days of the village. I belonged to that generation which saw, by chance, the end of a thousand years' life.” He regretted the loss – and succeeded in making the reader regret it too.
As a chronicle of one young man's transition from an isolated and self-sufficient existence into the midst of the world's murky struggle against the dark forces of modernity, Lee's story is humorous and moving. He recounts the conversion from the old ways to the new – and does so with lyrical prose and consummate pacing. I recommend Red Sky at Sunrise to readers of all ages. Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy earned a Five Star position on my bookshelf.
January 30, 2019
This has got to be one of the most beautifully written books that I've ever read. The author was first and foremost a poet and the prose he has written here reads like a gentle, lyrical love poem to a time, a place, a life forever lost.
I knew I was going to love it from the opening paragraph when 3 year old Laurie is set down from a cart in some long grass, he is bewildered and terrified;
' The June grass, amongst which I stood, was taller than I was, and I wept. I had never been so close to grass before. It towered above me and all around me, each blade tattooed with tiger skins of sunlight. It was knife edged, dark and a wicked green, thick as a forest and alive with grasshoppers that chirped and chattered and leapt through the air like monkeys'.
His first day at school leaves him upset and angry as his teacher sits him down at a desk and tells him to 'just sit there for the present'. When he gets home crying his Mum asks what has happened and little Laurie tells her that he was told he would get a present if he sat in his seat and he hasn't got one!! :))
The part about the 2 old ladies Granny Trill and Granny Wallon had me laughing with delight. I won't spoil anything but suffice to say, one lived above the other and there was 'animosity' between them. They referred to each other only as "Er-Down-Under and" Er-Up-Atop the varmint'.
Another part that had me crying with laughter was when the whole village went for a day trip in a Charabanc. They left their little village near Stoud in the Cotswolds for a seaside trip to Western- super- Mare. On arriving they halted on the promenade.
"The seaside" they said: " We gazed around us, but we saw no sign of the sea
We saw a vast blue sky and an infinity of mud stretching away to the shadows of Wales.
As I've been to Western many times, I can absolutely verify that the sea never comes in there. Well at least not when children want it to. ;))
This book is phenomenal. It has brought up so many memories for me from my childhood and a longing for those lost times. Every word resounds with beauty and his descriptions of nature as he sees it blew my mind;
'Bees blew like cake crumbs through the golden air, white butterflies like sugared wafers, and when it wasn't raining a diamond dust took over which veiled and yet magnified all things'
I'm going to stop here and will finish with the thought that; memories aren't always reliable and indeed can a person relate verbatim what happened in their childhood? These are the memories of Lauri lee as he remembers them and whether embellished with fantasy or all factual the story he has told is perfect.
5 whopping * from me, and a place on my books I'm passionate about shelf.
I will read the second part of this in March and the third in May and review the separately. :)
I knew I was going to love it from the opening paragraph when 3 year old Laurie is set down from a cart in some long grass, he is bewildered and terrified;
' The June grass, amongst which I stood, was taller than I was, and I wept. I had never been so close to grass before. It towered above me and all around me, each blade tattooed with tiger skins of sunlight. It was knife edged, dark and a wicked green, thick as a forest and alive with grasshoppers that chirped and chattered and leapt through the air like monkeys'.
His first day at school leaves him upset and angry as his teacher sits him down at a desk and tells him to 'just sit there for the present'. When he gets home crying his Mum asks what has happened and little Laurie tells her that he was told he would get a present if he sat in his seat and he hasn't got one!! :))
The part about the 2 old ladies Granny Trill and Granny Wallon had me laughing with delight. I won't spoil anything but suffice to say, one lived above the other and there was 'animosity' between them. They referred to each other only as "Er-Down-Under and" Er-Up-Atop the varmint'.
Another part that had me crying with laughter was when the whole village went for a day trip in a Charabanc. They left their little village near Stoud in the Cotswolds for a seaside trip to Western- super- Mare. On arriving they halted on the promenade.
"The seaside" they said: " We gazed around us, but we saw no sign of the sea
We saw a vast blue sky and an infinity of mud stretching away to the shadows of Wales.
As I've been to Western many times, I can absolutely verify that the sea never comes in there. Well at least not when children want it to. ;))
This book is phenomenal. It has brought up so many memories for me from my childhood and a longing for those lost times. Every word resounds with beauty and his descriptions of nature as he sees it blew my mind;
'Bees blew like cake crumbs through the golden air, white butterflies like sugared wafers, and when it wasn't raining a diamond dust took over which veiled and yet magnified all things'
I'm going to stop here and will finish with the thought that; memories aren't always reliable and indeed can a person relate verbatim what happened in their childhood? These are the memories of Lauri lee as he remembers them and whether embellished with fantasy or all factual the story he has told is perfect.
5 whopping * from me, and a place on my books I'm passionate about shelf.
I will read the second part of this in March and the third in May and review the separately. :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2025
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee adapted for the BBC
Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
This is a note on the adaptation and not the original.
So if I did not like the abridged format, the book might be great.
But I strongly doubt that it would be my cup of tea.
Even if the narrative is well regarded.
In fact, in this personal case, the shorter version saved me the trouble of going through the whole story.
Or else abandon after some chapters.
The account is not without merit.
Even without the dues concentration and attention it requires but I failed to give it, the tale has humor and drama.
It is the story of a childhood and that is part of the reason that I rejected the material, given that the subject matter is not appealing for this reader.
Unless we are talking Huckleberry Finn.
And this play is not on that level.
And by the way, Mark Twain is facing criticism for his use of the N word, even considering the age when it was written.
Louis C.K. was talking on one of his shows about the impossibility of reading from Huckleberry Finn to his daughters.
It is not appropriate, politically correct anymore.
The reader feels compassion and is saddened by many of the sad or outright tragic aspects in the life of Laurie and his family.
The father had four children and then his first wife died.
He marries the maid and there are four more babies.
And when Laurie is three, his parent left home.
The story of Laurie’s brush with death is both terrifying and humorous…
There is a dialogue which I think is more or less:
- what is happening
- Nothing much
- The uncle?
- Oh, he is sick?
- And Laurie, where is he?
- Laurie is dead
- What??!!
- He is dead, auntie is taking care…
- How can you say he is dead??!!
When they rush off to check on the poor boy, the aunt was indeed preparing him for the last rites since she knew he died.
Only he did not…
- What are you doing?
- The poor little one has departed
- Nonsense, look at his healthy color…
The boy was alive and he is grateful and funny when he says that it was really close and owes his life to his sister…
- I would be dead now if she wasn’t bored!
I also loved the scene wherein the first day at school has this exchange, if not in these words, I hope at least I have the essence:
- Welcome young man
- …
- You are eight years old?
- Yes
- Yes, mam
- Yes
- Yes…mam!
- What?
- Never mind
This book, in this case the adaptation for the BBC certainly has quite a few good moments, but alas I missed
Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
This is a note on the adaptation and not the original.
So if I did not like the abridged format, the book might be great.
But I strongly doubt that it would be my cup of tea.
Even if the narrative is well regarded.
In fact, in this personal case, the shorter version saved me the trouble of going through the whole story.
Or else abandon after some chapters.
The account is not without merit.
Even without the dues concentration and attention it requires but I failed to give it, the tale has humor and drama.
It is the story of a childhood and that is part of the reason that I rejected the material, given that the subject matter is not appealing for this reader.
Unless we are talking Huckleberry Finn.
And this play is not on that level.
And by the way, Mark Twain is facing criticism for his use of the N word, even considering the age when it was written.
Louis C.K. was talking on one of his shows about the impossibility of reading from Huckleberry Finn to his daughters.
It is not appropriate, politically correct anymore.
The reader feels compassion and is saddened by many of the sad or outright tragic aspects in the life of Laurie and his family.
The father had four children and then his first wife died.
He marries the maid and there are four more babies.
And when Laurie is three, his parent left home.
The story of Laurie’s brush with death is both terrifying and humorous…
There is a dialogue which I think is more or less:
- what is happening
- Nothing much
- The uncle?
- Oh, he is sick?
- And Laurie, where is he?
- Laurie is dead
- What??!!
- He is dead, auntie is taking care…
- How can you say he is dead??!!
When they rush off to check on the poor boy, the aunt was indeed preparing him for the last rites since she knew he died.
Only he did not…
- What are you doing?
- The poor little one has departed
- Nonsense, look at his healthy color…
The boy was alive and he is grateful and funny when he says that it was really close and owes his life to his sister…
- I would be dead now if she wasn’t bored!
I also loved the scene wherein the first day at school has this exchange, if not in these words, I hope at least I have the essence:
- Welcome young man
- …
- You are eight years old?
- Yes
- Yes, mam
- Yes
- Yes…mam!
- What?
- Never mind
This book, in this case the adaptation for the BBC certainly has quite a few good moments, but alas I missed
March 13, 2013
I first read Cider with Rosie at school and enjoyed it, identifying with the author's portrayal of childhood, I suppose. When I re-read it as an adult, and a father, I was overwhelmed by the yearning nostalgia of Lee's prose. But there is no mawkish sentimentality here, no idyll. In places there is a lurking , murderous undercurrent, a burgeoning and threatening sexuality that had gone over my head when I read the book at school. What comes across so strongly is Lee's sense of affection for and of belonging to a place and time that has forever vanished.
Cider with Rosie is not just one of the best books ever written about childhood, it is (for me) one of the best books ever written.
As I Walked Out Midsummer Morning sees Lee's leave-taking of his village home in the Cotswold countryside and his entry into the bigger world. It's a transition from a rural lifestyle that had not significantly changed for hundreds of years to the modern twentieth-century urban environment. Having seen the big city, Lee wants to see more of the world, and we are therefore gifted with his wondrously brilliant sketch of Spain. The heat and light of the Spanish plains seems to pour off the page and you feel transported.
A Moment of War continues from the point the previous volume ended, but the tone is very different. In an unusually cold Spanish winter, Lee joins the International Brigade in the Republican struggle against General Franco's fascists. Lee shows the horrible futility, wastefulness and arbitrariness of war unflinchingly. This easily stands beside Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves as a great literary war memoir. A downbeat ending to the trilogy, but nonetheless affecting.
Cider with Rosie is not just one of the best books ever written about childhood, it is (for me) one of the best books ever written.
As I Walked Out Midsummer Morning sees Lee's leave-taking of his village home in the Cotswold countryside and his entry into the bigger world. It's a transition from a rural lifestyle that had not significantly changed for hundreds of years to the modern twentieth-century urban environment. Having seen the big city, Lee wants to see more of the world, and we are therefore gifted with his wondrously brilliant sketch of Spain. The heat and light of the Spanish plains seems to pour off the page and you feel transported.
A Moment of War continues from the point the previous volume ended, but the tone is very different. In an unusually cold Spanish winter, Lee joins the International Brigade in the Republican struggle against General Franco's fascists. Lee shows the horrible futility, wastefulness and arbitrariness of war unflinchingly. This easily stands beside Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves as a great literary war memoir. A downbeat ending to the trilogy, but nonetheless affecting.
October 11, 2021
Entertaining trilogy as we follow Lee from an English literature staple describing his bucolic childhood into the hardships of the Spanish Civil War.
July 16, 2017
If you wanted an example of a gifted poet who can write prose but retain his poetry in that prose, this is the book for you. It is really three separate books: the famous 'Cider with Rosie' covering the writer's idyllic yet poverty-stricken upbringing in the Slad Valley in Gloucestershire; an account of his leaving home travelling to London and then Spain in the early nineteen-thirties and finally an account of his largely futile idealistic efforts in the Spanish civil war that nearly cost him his life on several occasions mainly due to the incompetence of the Republican side he was fighting on, as well as his inherent limitations as a soldier.
These books capture variously an England, a London and a Spain that are lost and gone. He combines factual observations with poetic descriptions. It is both a history and a poem.
Highly recommended. Having read this and a biography, I am still at a loss to understand how someone who had so rudimentary an education (by his own account largely timetables, dates of Kings and Queens and a few verses from the Bible) came to write so well and have such an understanding of the world. For he had undoubtedly had both of those attributes in generous quantity. He undoubtedly inherited some artistic talent from his mother while keeping very interesting company for most of his life.
These books capture variously an England, a London and a Spain that are lost and gone. He combines factual observations with poetic descriptions. It is both a history and a poem.
Highly recommended. Having read this and a biography, I am still at a loss to understand how someone who had so rudimentary an education (by his own account largely timetables, dates of Kings and Queens and a few verses from the Bible) came to write so well and have such an understanding of the world. For he had undoubtedly had both of those attributes in generous quantity. He undoubtedly inherited some artistic talent from his mother while keeping very interesting company for most of his life.
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September 5, 2016Where do i start about this book. Cider with Rosie, is one of those books thats been on my must read pile for a long time and i promised myself i would read this summer, and now i have i wish i'd read it sooner, or do I. Maybe if i'd read this when i was a few years younger i wouldn't have appreciated the lyrical prose that Lee plays with in this text. "Bees float like cake crumbs" the descriptions are so wonderful and conjure up time gone by that no longer exist in the british countryside. The other two stories of his life are just as beautiful and descriptive and i felt that the journeys he made in Spain i was along for the journey with him. This book of all three autobiographical stories of Lee are worth the time, but to be savoured not rushed. For any of you that want a serene read of different times i recommend this book!
March 27, 2023
Lyrical beauty, if I had 10% of his writing talent I would be a very happy man.
September 30, 2021
Lovely to read!
May 18, 2019
4.5-ish. Heartfelt, stinging reminiscence of a life and of worlds passed away. The passage from brutality of poverty to brutality of war in the second and third books is particularly stark.
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September 7, 2020I read Cider with Rosie years ago and loved this story, the trilogy is a continuation of what happened in Laurie's life when he left home, a sensitive story of one man's journey, will read it again.
June 7, 2023
weedy little english man CANNOT have seduced so many girls i refuse to believe it. also he was a little creep and planned to sexually assault someone in the first book and it was never discussed again. die scum. nice language though
November 2, 2009
Laurie Lee came from the Stroud valleys, not so very far from where I grew up. His Cotswold childhood happened back when cars were still a rareity, when the world was a far less industrial place. There's a nostalgia for the past here, for lost innocence. The writing is beautiful. There are sorrows and hard times as well though, its not jsut a rose tinted view of a rural youth.
'As I walked out' takes Lee across Spain, walking and busking. This section of his life really caught my imagination, although I've never had the nerve to do anything like it, it's fuelled my daydreaming for many years. More evocative prose, and a great adventure.
A Moment of War - as Spain plunged into civil war, Lee felt obliged to go back and participate. what follows is dark, insane and deeply disturbing, a haunting recollection of a terrible conflict.
Having all three books in one volume is a great asset. They're wildly different in character, and all very good reads. Cider with Rosie might be the most famous, but I feel the other two are far stronger books, much more adult and provocative.
Laurie Lee was also a poet, so if you enjoy these you might want to look out his other work.
'As I walked out' takes Lee across Spain, walking and busking. This section of his life really caught my imagination, although I've never had the nerve to do anything like it, it's fuelled my daydreaming for many years. More evocative prose, and a great adventure.
A Moment of War - as Spain plunged into civil war, Lee felt obliged to go back and participate. what follows is dark, insane and deeply disturbing, a haunting recollection of a terrible conflict.
Having all three books in one volume is a great asset. They're wildly different in character, and all very good reads. Cider with Rosie might be the most famous, but I feel the other two are far stronger books, much more adult and provocative.
Laurie Lee was also a poet, so if you enjoy these you might want to look out his other work.
June 13, 2018
Wonderfully written. So lyrical. IMHO should be compulsory reading in secodary schools.
April 9, 2023
Having Read the Laurie Lee Trilogy
As one does, these days, I stumbled on this classic threesome by accident.
Cider with Rosie is an affectionate, realistic autobiography of the author as boy, young man, and adult; it’s a coming of age narrative that rings with simple and well -described truth. Most enjoyable.
The second in the trilogy, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, sees the intrepid author walking through Spain, employing his violin to profitable use; the descriptions of villager, town, and country are vivid and lead Lee to Spain.
The final book sees our hero getting into all kinds of difficult scrapes as he joins the war effort in 1930s Spain; the war’s futility comes through on every page; that he survives at all seems miraculous … yet he did.
To his credit, Lee describes his amorous ventures with respectable restraint and, unlike so many contemporary authors, allows our imagination to fill in the blanks.
Commendable all round and a joy to read.
As one does, these days, I stumbled on this classic threesome by accident.
Cider with Rosie is an affectionate, realistic autobiography of the author as boy, young man, and adult; it’s a coming of age narrative that rings with simple and well -described truth. Most enjoyable.
The second in the trilogy, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, sees the intrepid author walking through Spain, employing his violin to profitable use; the descriptions of villager, town, and country are vivid and lead Lee to Spain.
The final book sees our hero getting into all kinds of difficult scrapes as he joins the war effort in 1930s Spain; the war’s futility comes through on every page; that he survives at all seems miraculous … yet he did.
To his credit, Lee describes his amorous ventures with respectable restraint and, unlike so many contemporary authors, allows our imagination to fill in the blanks.
Commendable all round and a joy to read.
May 17, 2017
Shouldn't really have taken me so long - I read 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' in a matter of days, then had a bit of a gap and read 'A Moment of War' in dribs and drabs. _Utterly_ beguiling - you can tell he's a poet because his prose just oozes from the page. Lyrical, beautiful and the most tangible, gorgeous images. Absolute master of words, he makes you fall in love with the language. Also a great read! I read 'Cider with Rosie' years back but do not remember it being so fluid and luscious as this. Maybe I'm just getting old?
My copy is now full of underlinings and folded corners because I want to copy out literally scores of phrases and passages.
My copy is now full of underlinings and folded corners because I want to copy out literally scores of phrases and passages.
March 6, 2021
Conflicting when read in series, but great literature, rich poetry
Masterpiece as of course you'd anticipated. Only discernible ripple is trying to get one's head around how the raw child in cider with Rosie, suddenly become at young man with such worldly knowledge and education...there appear gaps that appear in life experience cross reference points, which seem as small hiccups in the story....it shows as one runs straight from one book to the next....you are left thinking "hey how did he get that reference point" ...where's the untold part of the story that got him there in his education...or was the story of cider with Rosie just too raw.....
Masterpiece as of course you'd anticipated. Only discernible ripple is trying to get one's head around how the raw child in cider with Rosie, suddenly become at young man with such worldly knowledge and education...there appear gaps that appear in life experience cross reference points, which seem as small hiccups in the story....it shows as one runs straight from one book to the next....you are left thinking "hey how did he get that reference point" ...where's the untold part of the story that got him there in his education...or was the story of cider with Rosie just too raw.....
October 1, 2021
These are Laurie Lee's autobiographical books. The first, Cider with Rosie, giving his life from the age of about three up to teenage. It is clearly written by a poet with very lyrical descriptions of a quite deprived childhood. It is illustrated by drawings, I think done by Laurie Lee himself.
As I Walked Out On A Midsummer Morning tells of the time he left home at about 18, walking, and visited various places on England before sailing to Spain and setting off again, still on foot.
A Moment of War details his return to Spain a year later to join the International Brigade. I found this the least interesting.
A lovely style and beautiful descriptions of a long gone way of living.
As I Walked Out On A Midsummer Morning tells of the time he left home at about 18, walking, and visited various places on England before sailing to Spain and setting off again, still on foot.
A Moment of War details his return to Spain a year later to join the International Brigade. I found this the least interesting.
A lovely style and beautiful descriptions of a long gone way of living.
June 4, 2022
I originally only intended to read “As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning” which is regarded one of the best 20th Century novels set during the Spanish Civil War. I ended up buying and reading the triology. An epic autobiographical adventure of the author’s journey and coming of adulthood from idyllic English countryside to the hardships of 1920-30s Spain, the class differences, the rise of fascism, the wars in Africa, the republic and the dreams of a nation, society and the world shattered by Civil War and fascism.
July 31, 2022
Read the first book at school many years ago and enjoyed rereading. The second and third books will admit struggles to get through and did feel like giving up. Just seemed to go on and on but get no where. To some his travels through Spain and involvement in the Spanish Civil War might seem exciting. To me quite boring and tedious. Think I just kept reading thinking it might improve. But it didn’t :(
February 22, 2022
Very good, although it does seem a little dated now. A good reminder of a different age, and of how awful the Spanish civil war was. The picture of a Cotswald village in the 20's and early 30's in Cider with Rosie is wonderful, very detailed and rich, as is the description of his travels in As I Walked out etc. I didn't like A Moment of War, but mostly because of the war itself.
August 7, 2024
How can such beautiful writing ever get old? I've read all these books several times and read them again recently when I was setting out on a 1,225km trek across Spain as research for my own latest travel book. No doubt I'll be reaching for the dog-eared copy on my shelf again before too much time has gone by!
December 11, 2023
The second of this trilogy is just a lesson in evocative writing. Sample sentence: The country east of Tarifa was high, bare, and brown as a mangy lion, with kites and vultures turning slowly overhead, square-winged, like electric fans.
December 31, 2017
All-time favourite!
August 11, 2018
Laurie Lee’s upbringing in the Cotswolds of England and his venturing off into the world.
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June 13, 2020Loved his trilogy
September 8, 2020
Only three stars, loved Cider with Rosie, could happily have left the other two.
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July 14, 2022I must be honest Im not impressed
Very dispassionate and unemotional writing
Long read
Very dispassionate and unemotional writing
Long read
November 1, 2023
“A mug of tea at each meal was of course served without asking, and was so strong you could trot a mouse on it.” (As I Walked out one Midsummer Morning.)
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