Bright Young Things discussion

I thought it might be a good idea to have a folder for Laurie Lee as his centenary celebrations start!

Just wanted to let those in the UK know that his As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning will be BBC Radio 4's book of the week next week, with an abridged version broadcast in five daily episodes at 9.45am from Monday to Friday. Plus it will also be available online at this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b046j8z7

Thanks Judy


That's really helpful. I probably would not have known about the serialisation of As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning if you had not started this thread and I will definitely listen to it - with great anticipation too.

I adore the book - it's probably my favourite book of Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy...

Cider With Rosie (1959); published in the U.S. as The Edge of Day (1960)
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969)
A Moment of War (1991)

By the by, this article provides some interesting insights into Laurie Lee's life and work...
http://www.theguardian.com/books/1999...

Thanks in turn for the article link, Nigeyb, very interesting!

All I've ever read by Lee is 'Cider with Rosie' when I was a teenager (I can't believe that title for the US, which sounds like a thriller - how could a publisher change such a great and beloved title?) so I will look forward to listening to 'As I Walked Out'.

Just found another couple of good links, to the official Laurie Lee centenary website and Facebook page - his books are all being relaunched and quite a lot of special events are planned. The Facebook page seems to have more content out of the two.

http://laurielee.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-La...

^ Those links are very helpful. Thanks once again.


Yes the title change in the US is very puzzling. Perhaps Cider is completely unknown as a drink? I'm sure one of our US-based BYTers will probably be able to confirm this. Either way the alternate title feels very inappropriate.

We have apple cider, mostly around Halloween. Although I did have a friend once who was doing some fermenting under her bed and her pot (I think it was a pot) exploded and there was a big mess in her room.

There was a young lady of Ryde
Who ate some green apples and died.
The apples fermented
Inside the lamented,
And made cider inside her inside.

Thanks for the thoughts on cider, Jan - sounds as if it might not be as popular in the US as it is in England, which might explain the title change. And thanks to Mike for that classic limerick - and welcome to BYT.

There is an interview with Laurie Lee's daughter, Jessy Lee, in today's Radio Times - I can't find it onine anywhere, but did find a nice piece by her about her father in the Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo...

For many years it was legal to drink cider at a younger age than beer, wine or spirits in the UK. Even now it is often less expensive than other drinks with the same alcoholic content. These two factors mean that it is often seen as a teenage drink and as part of the transition to adulthood. Many people remember their experience of drinking it fondly and others never want to taste it again, presumably depending on quite how drunk they got on it.

Cider is also called cider here in California, but it isn't popular at all. It IS gaining in popularity due to the whole gluten free trend, kind of. Bars that do have it on the menu typically only have one option. The bigger cities sometimes have bars with like 3-4 options instead but in my experience that's pretty rare.

Sparkling cider has always been popular, in my family at least, for kids to drink during holidays and events where adults are drinking champagne or wine.

Val wrote: "For many years it was legal to drink cider at a younger age than beer, wine or spirits in the UK. Even now it is often less expensive than other drinks with the same alcoholic content. These two factors mean that it is often seen as a teenage drink and as part of the transition to adulthood. "

Val, that's a great point which explains why the title 'Cider with Rosie' has that feeling of coming of age - I'd completely forgotten that it used to be legal to drink it at a younger age. I also think because it is so associated with the West Country it gives the feeling of the area, so all these associations are there in the title - maybe explaining why it is so memorable.

Judy wrote: "Just wanted to let those in the UK know that his As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning will be BBC Radio 4's book of the week next week, with an abridged version broadcast in five daily episodes at 9.45am from Monday to Friday."

I thoroughly enjoyed Episode 1 and look forward to listening to Episode 2. An absolute delight. Thanks again Judy.

Thanks in turn for reminding me about it, Nigeyb - it had slipped my mind, but I've just listened to the first two episodes on iplayer and thoroughly enjoyed them. He writes so beautifully and it is all so vividly described you can almost see and taste it! Tobias Menzies also has a great reading voice.

I see that BBC Radio Gloucestershire is re-creating his walk to Spain - there are some interesting articles about it on their website, and Lee's last radio interview can also be heard there:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01xj23f

There are also several more radio programmes about him coming up on Radio 4 Extra this month:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/prog...

I'm wondering if anything is going to turn up on TV - maybe a repeat of one of the two films of 'Cider with Rosie', or a documentary? I'll keep an eye out.

I've just listened to Episode 3 of 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning', where I found it a bit jarring when the reader kept doing heavy accents for the Spanish characters (he reminded me a bit of Manuel in Fawlty Towers!) Still enjoying the series, but I can see I'll need to read the whole book... which I suppose is really the point anyway.

^ I've got 2 & 3 cued up on my iPod ready to listen to. Can't wait.


The book is excellent. I loved it - as I did the whole trilogy. I recommend all three of them.

Isn't cider a non-alcoholic drink in the US?

Usually. Although I assume my friend who was trying to ferment it was hoping for a bit of a kick. I vaguely remember drinking some of it and not really liking it. But it was better than nothing. This was 40+ years ago.

In California, people usually don't say "cider." There is apple cider, basically just apple juice. (I've never quite understood the difference). There is sparkling cider, which is carbonated apple juice. There is hard cider, the alcoholic drink. It isn't that popular. I don't think I've ever seen it on a menu in a restaurant. It is, however, readily available in stores.

When Cider with Rosie was first mentioned here, it sounded like a book for pre-teens. It gave me the same impression a book called Peter Rabbit's Tea Party would have given me--definitely not a book for adults. Perhaps that is why the name has been changed for the American audience. I agree with Judy that The Edge of Day sounds like a thriller (or maybe a soap opera-esque story) but at least it sounds like an adult book!

I have to agree with Barbara. Cider with Rosie sounds like a children's book to me by the title.

I can see why a soft drink would not have the same resonance, but think the publisher could have kept the title and added something to make the significance a bit clearer, something like "Cider with Rosie: the Memoir of a Country Boy".
Cider is fermented apple juice, so would usually have some alcohol in it (unless it has been removed). When Laurie Lee was writing and drinking it, many West Country farms made their own and the alcoholic content could vary from innocuous to knock-out. It is more controlled now in the UK (and the rest of the EU), so cideries have to measure and state the alcohol content in their product. It is possible to buy non-alcoholic cider, which is fermented as usual and the alcohol is removed afterwards. (The regulations governing cider are different to those for ginger beer, which does not have to be fermented and so can be made without any alcohol, although originally that was alcoholic too.)

Barbara, the chain Yard House usually has a few options of cider, including a seasonal variety. Other than that I haven't found any restaurants in Northern CA with it. It's much more readily available in Southern CA in my experience.

Just curious, is removing alcohol from beverages difficult? I didn't know it was something that was possible.

I think that breweries, cideries, etc. usually heat the beer or cider under reduced pressure so that the alcohol boils off, but I have heard of a reverse osmosis technique for wine which is supposed to preserve the flavour better.

Thanks for all the info about cider - it makes more sense to me now that the title was originally changed. It looks as if the book is now published as 'Cider with Rosie' in the US too, however, now that the title has become so famous and iconic.

I do remember a similar title change the other way round some years back, when The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller was published in the UK as 'Love in Black and White', on the grounds that nobody here has ever heard of Madison County! All the photos of bridges were also removed. However, when the book became a bestseller and was filmed, it was hastily republished under its original name, and the photos were put back!

This is on the BBC News website this morning:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-...
(Laurie Lee was born in 1914, not his father.)


Judy, some title changes do seem a bit silly. Does it matter that nobody had heard of Madison County? It might be confusing if there was a county of the same name in the UK, but there isn't.

^ Lovely article Val - thanks.


I've also been meaning to mention how much I enjoyed the BBC adaptation of As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. A wonderful listen. Thanks Judy. I noticed it is heavily abridged and is no substitute for reading the wonderful book.

Once again, anyone who has never read Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy should put that right at the earliest available opportunity.

Thanks Val for that article. It was very interesting.

I have to admit I'd never heard of Laurie Lee before the nomination to read Cider with Rosie. I don't know if it's just me, or if he is not well-known here in the States....but I intend to read his trilogy as soon as possible. Sounds very good. Thanks all.

Barbara wrote: "I intend to read his trilogy as soon as possible"


Hurrah.

Barbara wrote: "I'd never heard of Laurie Lee before the nomination to read Cider with Rosie. I don't know if it's just me, or if he is not well-known here in the States."

I notice he won a few awards in the States however it does appear that his popularity was greater in the UK than in the USA.

Cider With Rosie is readily available on Amazon.com - both in physical form and kindle, and seems to have plenty of reviews too.

There's so many books and writers though - I am constantly discovering news ones from the BYT era. Who could ever know them all?

I don't remember the title but I did read the one about when he went to Spain to fight in '38 (?). It didn't impress me all that much. This was probably +30 years ago that I read it. So my memory of it is probably a little hazy.

Jan C wrote: "I read the one about when he went to Spain to fight in '38 (?)"


That would have been A Moment of War, the third and final part of his autobiographical trilogy. One of the most dramatic starts to a book I have ever read. Perhaps not quite as good as the other two parts but still a wonderful read.

Val wrote: "Judy, some title changes do seem a bit silly. Does it matter that nobody had heard of Madison County?..."

Totally agree, Val - that one reminded me of 'Cider with Rosie' because in both cases the original title was so great, and the replacement title so weak and instantly forgettable!

Thank goodness nobody thought of changing 'To Kill a Mockingbird' because we don't have mockingbirds in the UK!

Jan, Nigey, I have not read A Moment of War, but I think Laurie Lee's poetic, nostalgic style suits a childhood and teenage memoir better than a wartime one. There are other, very good Spanish Civil War memoirs (Orwell) and experience based novels (Hemingway) available, which have a more immediate impact. It might have been better if Laurie Lee had expressed that experience in poetry.

Judy: "To Kill a Robin"?
Starlings are our best mimics, but not everyone loves them.

Val wrote: "Judy: "To Kill a Robin"?
Starlings are our best mimics, but not everyone loves them."

I always thought starlings were in a class with blue jays - attack birds.

Val wrote: "I have not read A Moment of War, but I think Laurie Lee's poetic, nostalgic style suits a childhood and teenage memoir better than a wartime one. There are other, very good Spanish Civil War memoirs (Orwell) and experience based novels (Hemingway) available, which have a more immediate impact. It might have been better if Laurie Lee had expressed that experience in poetry."

Thanks Val.

I have read all the books you mention. Laurie Lee's book is every bit as good as Orwell's and better than Hemingway's. I should add that I loved all those books.

Coincidentally back in 2007 I wrote about all of them, and a few more, here...

http://www.punk77.co.uk/anarcho_punk/...

Here's what I wrote about Laurie's memoir...

Laurie Lee did an amazing thing. One midsummer morning he walked out of his childhood home in the Cotswolds (described in entertaining detail in the fabulous ‘Cider with Rosie’) and walked to Spain via London (described in ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’). The final part of the trilogy - ‘A Moment of War’ – covers Laurie’s return to Spain during the Spanish Civil War. The introduction is brilliant. Laurie schleps across the Pyrenees to volunteer only to be arrested as a spy. I won’t say anymore, suffice to say it is gripping stuff. If you have the time and the inclination then read all three books. By the time you get to ‘A Moment of War’ you’ll adore Laurie’s fabulous powers of description and understated bravery.

Highly recommended - as is the whole trilogy.

Jan C wrote: "Val wrote: "Judy: "To Kill a Robin"?
Starlings are our best mimics, but not everyone loves them."

I always thought starlings were in a class with blue jays - attack birds."

They are not part of the crow family, so I would not think of them as attack birds. They form large flocks, so they can be noisy and you would not want to park your car under a tree they roost in. They also do this at dusk, which is a wonderful sight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LDtv...

Your starlings may be different, these are European starlings, usually just called starlings in UK.

Robins do attack, but only each other.

Getting back to Laurie Lee, I've just come across a couple of good obituaries...


The Independent's obit...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/peo...

It includes a bit about A Moment of War...

One of his attractions as a writer is that he admits to making journeys without a cause. His interest in the Republican cause in Spain was minimal and yet his wonderful account of the defeat of the Republican Army in 1937 makes A Moment of War (1991) an unforgettable addition to the remarkable literature which came out of this conflict.

The Economist's obit...
http://www.economist.com/node/369996

After visiting Slad and popping into the Woolpack Inn for a Rosie special, a Lee pilgrim might nip over to Almuñecar, a fishing village and the scene of an episode in his Spanish book, to look at the statue put up in his honour.

This remarkable achievement came from a modest oeuvre: mainly three bits of biography (the third was “A Moment of War”, about his experiences in the Spanish civil war, when he fought briefly against the Franco forces) and his poems. Laurie Lee was not contrite about writing slowly (with a 4B pencil). Barbara Cartland and Compton Mackenzie had written hundreds of books which had been forgotten, he said. His few were remembered. Nevertheless, he took his success without fuss. The main gain, he said, was that he could now afford whisky.

I think that's an interesting point about his work rate. Surely better to write one (or a handful) of books that will be remembered beyond the life of the writer, than to churn out hundreds of books that will soon be forgotten?

Here's a lovely article about Laurie Lee...


‘The stooping figure of my mother, waist-deep in the grass and caught there like a piece of sheep’s wool, was the last I saw of my country home as I left it to discover the world.’

So begins Laurie Lee’s memoir As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, first published in 1969, the second in his celebrated autobiographical trilogy. That liminal moment, between the leaving and the left-behind, the yielding certainties of home and the first bold steps out of the enfolding valley, so beautifully rendered in that opening line, has resonated with me for over twenty years.

heriver.net/2014/06/the-centenary-of-...

I've just got..





A Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee

...out of the library.

I cannot wait to read it.

Andalusia is a passion - and fifteen years after his last visit Laurie Lee returned. He found a country broken by the Civil War, but the totems of indestructible Spain survive: the Christ in agony, the thrilling flamenco cry-the pride in poverty, the gypsy intensity in vivid whitewashed slums, the cult of the bullfight, the exultation in death, the humour of hopelessness-the paradoxes deep in the fiery bones of Spain. Rich with kaleidoscopic images, A Rose For Winter is as sensual and evocative as the sun-scorched landscape of Andalusia itself.

Nigeyb wrote: "I've just got..

A Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee

...out of the library.

I cannot wait to read it.

Andalusia is a passion - and fifteen years after his last vis..."

I hope you will enjoy it - I did, although it is now 30 years since I read it.
I recently reread the three books in the 1930s trilogy, published together as Red Sky at Sunrise: Cider with Rosie; As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning; A Moment of War. I was very impressed with A Moment of War and thought it seemed one the more realistic and honest accounts of fighting in Spain, but it's since been suggested that he lied about his participation in the war. For what it's worth, I don't think he did.

^ That trilogy is just wonderful Mike. I think both Spain books have the unmistakeable tang of authenticity

Just returning to this thread to mention that the new adaptation of Cider With Rosie is on BBC1 on Sunday in the UK.

I thought the version of Lady Chatterley's Lover in the same series of classic adaptations was awful - so hoping this one is better! I have recorded The Go-Between, another adaptation in the series, but haven't watched it yet.

Judy wrote: "Just returning to this thread to mention that the new adaptation of Cider With Rosie is on BBC1 on Sunday in the UK."

I've just watched the first ten minutes and it's very good - looks great, well acted and a lovely evocation of the book. Can't wait to see the rest of it.

^Thanks Judy! I managed to miss it - I'll have to see it I can catch it on iplayer (along with The Go-Between).

Am starting to think there a special column in TV listings headed 'book adaptions' so that I wouldn't keep missing them!

^ There was one on every Sunday evening on BBC1 - though I think Cider With Rosie was the last one.

Here's the iPlayer link...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...

28 days left to watch it

^ Still working my way through this.


It's an absolute delight. Magical.

I would not have imagined that Cider With Rosie, one of my all time favourite books, could have been adapted so brilliantly.

Do yourself a favour and watch it whilst you can.


This review in the Guardian does it justice....

Cider With Rosie review: ‘it captures the poetry and the spirit of Laurie Lee’

Another Sunday, another adaptation of a classic of 20th century literature. They’ve been fabulous though, and Cider With Rosie (BBC1, Sunday), the last, is no exception. There’ll be moans and grouches of course, as there have been with the previous ones – they changed this and left out that, the murder, the uncles. It’s about mathematics, though, and different media: a 300 page book doesn’t always fit neatly into 90 mins of TV. And what works in one doesn’t always work in the other. A certain amount of trimming and alteration is required.

Which Ben Vanstone, the tailor/mathematician/adapter, has done expertly. The uncles are lost (the grannies – Trill and Wallon – survive, happily … well, until they sadly die). It doesn’t entirely follow Laurie Lee’s thematic approach, though it does yo-yo backwards and forwards in time. Crucially, though, it captures the poetry and the spirit of Lee, and a kind of village life that even towards the ends of the first world war was dying and now no longer exists, except maybe in Outer Mongolia. And a time in a person’s life when so much is going on and changing, in their heads, and in their pants. I don’t believe many people watching won’t have been taken back to their own childhoods, adolescences and early loves, wherever and whenever they were.

The kiss, the pastoral one Loll and Rosie have been heading towards throughout, even if he doesn’t know it, is lovely. “So dry, and shy, it was like two leaves colliding in air,” an older Laurie Lee remembers (perhaps a bit too old Hovis-ad rural-nostalgic from Timothy Spall, narrating – ’twas a grand ride back though!).

Young Archie Cox is the teenage Lee, encapsulating awkwardness and embarrassment, mischief and discovery. The even younger Georgie Smith is adorable as the even younger Lee; child actors seem to get better and better. Ruby Ashbourne Serkis’s Rosie grows ever more beguiling throughout to the viewer, as she does to Laurie. Jessica Hynes frumps up surprising well as Mrs Crabby the schoolmistress (the classroom scenes are hilarious). Samantha Morton’s Annie – mum – radiates humanity and warmth. And the Slad valley (it was actually filmed around there, in Gloucestershire) looks as beautiful as it did on the midsummer morning when Laurie Lee walked out, feeling “doomed, and of all things, wonderful”.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-rad...

^ Finally finished watching the BBC adaptation of Cider With Rosie, one of my all time favourite books.

It perfectly captured the poetry and spirit of the book and the life in the village. As with the book it had a poignancy and magic that is transcendent.

Perfection.

And thanks so much to Judy - I would have missed it were it not for her.

This looks like it would be good book to read in December....


Village Christmas And Other Notes on the English Year



From the author of Cider With Rosie, Village Christmas is a moving, lyrical portrait of England through the changing years and seasons.

Laurie Lee left his childhood home in the Cotswolds when he was nineteen, but it remained with him throughout his life until, many years later, he returned for good. This collection brings to life the sights, sounds, landscapes and traditions of his home - from centuries-old May Day rituals to his own patch of garden, from carol singing in crunching snow to pub conversations and songs. Here too he writes about the mysteries of love, living in wartime Chelsea, Winston Churchill's wintry funeral and his battle, in old age, to save his beloved Slad Valley from developers.

Told with a warm sense of humour and a powerful sense of history, Village Christmas brings us a picture of a vanished world.

As Judy has nominated As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning for our June non-fiction read it must also surely be time to revive this Laurie Lee thread.

So, here it is, behold, it's full of nuggets about Mr Lee and his wonderful books.

Once again my non-fiction nomination languishes near the bottom of our current poll (for June 2016) so, rather than waste my vote...

Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938 4 votes, 33.3%
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning 3 votes, 25.0%
The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler 2 votes, 16.7%
New World Coming: The 1920s And The Making Of Modern America 2 votes, 16.7%
* Tiger Woman 1 vote, 8.3%
White Mischief 0 votes, 0.0%

...I'm getting behind Laurie Lee who really deserves a group read and discussion as it's so wonderful....

* As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning 4 votes, 33.3%
Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938 4 votes, 33.3%
The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler 2 votes, 16.7%
New World Coming: The 1920s And The Making Of Modern America 2 votes, 16.7%
Tiger Woman 0 votes, 0.0%
White Mischief 0 votes, 0.0%

#Votelaurie

Exciting times. Laurie's out in front....
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

* As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning 6 votes, 40.0%
Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938 5 votes, 33.3%
The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler 2 votes, 13.3%
New World Coming: The 1920s And The Making Of Modern America 2 votes, 13.3%
Tiger Woman 0 votes, 0.0%
White Mischief 0 votes, 0.0%

#votelaurie #leeinthelead

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...


Robert MacFarlane – in the footsteps of Laurie Lee

Best known for his bucolic memoir Cider With Rosie, Lee was born 100 years ago. The brilliant sequel – an account of an epic walk through Depression-era England and scorching Spain – is far from rose-tinted....

The two great walks of 20th-century English literature began within a few months of each other. On a snowy midwinter morning in December 1933, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on foot along the icy road that led east from the Hook of Holland towards Rotterdam. He was 18 years old, he had an ash stick in his hand and a copy of the Oxford Book of English Verse in his rucksack. And on a sunny midsummer morning in June 1934, Laurie Lee set out on foot along the dusty road that led east from his Gloucestershire village of Slad towards London. He was 19 years old, he had a hazel stick in his hand and a violin wrapped in a blanket under his arm.

Leigh Fermor would walk from Holland to Constantinople over the course of 13 months, passing en route through a Mitteleuropa on the brink of catastrophe. Several decades later, he would publish two books recounting his wanderings through those shadowed lands, A Time of Gifts (1977) and Between the Woods and the Water (1986). Both have become classics, celebrated for their evocation of a since-shattered world, and for the lushness of their language.

Lee would walk first to London, and then south through Spain, passing en route through a country on the edge of civil war. Several decades later, he would publish a book recounting his wanderings through that shadowed land, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969), which has become a classic, celebrated for its evocation of a since-shattered world, and for the lushness of its language.

Rest here...
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014...