It was 1934 and a young man walked to London from the security of the Cotswolds to make his fortune.
He was to live by playing the violin and by...
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Jun 26, 2011
russell
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This is one of two books I inherited from my mum's parents, the other being Anna Karenina. I remember going up to my grandpa's house after he died and reading this, by an open fire, drinking Stones Ginger Wine the night of his funeral. I must have been about 16-17, and me and my brother were the only people in the house as our parents stayed with my aunt.
Anyway, maybe it was the age thing, being hyper-sensitive because of the funeral, it being a windy, stormy night, or the ginger wi More...
Anyway, maybe it was the age thing, being hyper-sensitive because of the funeral, it being a windy, stormy night, or the ginger wi More...
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Aug 01, 2011
This is the first of two sequels to Cider with Rosie and I found it to be equally enjoyable. Lee sets off to London at the age of nineteen, planning to meet up with a girlfriend. After diverting to the south coast of England because he’s never seen the ‘proper’ sea before, and surviving successfully by busking with his violin, he arrives in London, moving in with his girlfriend and her family.
Eventually he finds digs and a job in Putney and begins working on a building site. After about a year i More...
Eventually he finds digs and a job in Putney and begins working on a building site. After about a year i More...
Jan 18, 2012
Peter
rated it: 
This is possibly my favourite book, I re-read it every 3-4 years and will continue to do so.
I think that is partly due to the fact that I first read it at 21 and I'm sure that like like most people my desire to experience new things without a safety net is strongest around that age.
This book is about that; a young man sets out on a journey at a time when travel for its own sake was extremely rare for the vast majority of people, when leaving the county or even the village was More...
I think that is partly due to the fact that I first read it at 21 and I'm sure that like like most people my desire to experience new things without a safety net is strongest around that age.
This book is about that; a young man sets out on a journey at a time when travel for its own sake was extremely rare for the vast majority of people, when leaving the county or even the village was More...
Oct 04, 2011
Christoph
rated it: 
When i first picked this up, I thought this one was a female writer:
Author: Laurie Lee
Title: As I walked out one midsummer morning
Time: 1934-1937
Destination: England, Spain, France
Length: several trips
Type: mostly hiking
Rating: 5/10
Poetic, but…
The story: LL is a young man of just over twenty, when he steps out of his door and decides to walk to London. He then stays there for a year, works in construction and meets a g More...
Author: Laurie Lee
Title: As I walked out one midsummer morning
Time: 1934-1937
Destination: England, Spain, France
Length: several trips
Type: mostly hiking
Rating: 5/10
Poetic, but…
The story: LL is a young man of just over twenty, when he steps out of his door and decides to walk to London. He then stays there for a year, works in construction and meets a g More...
Dec 10, 2008
Ellie
rated it:
A beautiful and poetic memoir, that is unputdownable from the word go.
This is the sequal to Cider with Rosie, and see a young Lauri Lee setting out on foot on an adventure. He has never seen the sea, so he starts off towards that, and ends up in Spain, where he astonished by the diffence in climate from England;
"The violence of the heat seemed to bruise the whole earth and turn its crust into one huge scar. One's blood dried up and all juices vanished; the sun struck More...
This is the sequal to Cider with Rosie, and see a young Lauri Lee setting out on foot on an adventure. He has never seen the sea, so he starts off towards that, and ends up in Spain, where he astonished by the diffence in climate from England;
"The violence of the heat seemed to bruise the whole earth and turn its crust into one huge scar. One's blood dried up and all juices vanished; the sun struck More...
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Aug 07, 2010
Xabier
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I have come to this book after the pushing, pressing advice of a friend, but also escorted by two positive reviews from other friends. I was looking for those seven or eight pages taken place in Galicia, and these are not disappointing. It flashes a musical English and a smelling prose around, describing the pleasures and fears of a young British in the 1930s.
But it is also the journey of an English man around Spain, that country full of beggars and gipsies, where people is killed o More...
But it is also the journey of an English man around Spain, that country full of beggars and gipsies, where people is killed o More...
Mar 13, 2011
Robert
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As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) is an autobiographical account of an epic journey around Spain in the nineteen thirties.
It is 1934 and Laurie Lee, the author, is a young man. He leaves the security of his Cotswold home to embark on an adventure.
Initially he travels to London and ekes out an existence by playing the violin and by labouring on a London building site. He decides to go to Spain. It seems a rash decision because the young lad’s choice of destination is based More...
It is 1934 and Laurie Lee, the author, is a young man. He leaves the security of his Cotswold home to embark on an adventure.
Initially he travels to London and ekes out an existence by playing the violin and by labouring on a London building site. He decides to go to Spain. It seems a rash decision because the young lad’s choice of destination is based More...
Jun 07, 2011
Lynda
rated it:
I am not a great reader of autobiographies but this one I really enjoyed. Travelling around England before making the crossing to Spain made an enjoyable read. The journey in Spain however really got inside my head. This is before people had "gap years" or went travelling to"find themselves". However travelling in Spain just before the Spanish Civil War was a dangerous mission to be on, and he met some very strange people on his way across what was then ( without a mobile ph
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Jun 27, 2011
Edward
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Terrific writing by a well know British writer about his travels as a young man in Spain in the mid 1930's at the time of the start of the Civil War. His descriptions of the country and the people were great. It is hard to imagine doing what this writer did as a young man. He lived without and walking was his means of transportation. It was given to me as a birthday present while traveling around England this month. It was well worth reading.
Oct 25, 2011
Mary Lou
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This book is a treasure. Laurie Lee gives a flavour of Spain as he passes through each town and village on his unplanned walking jurney. He manages to be so objective and unjudgemental, almost as if he is a simple, unassuming, observing shadow- leaving no changes in his wake. At the same time, I found myself really liking him. The end is stunning when he finds himself unable to just leave Spain- responsibility having at last imprinted its mark on him.
Nov 24, 2011
Ferox
rated it:
Nostalgic account of 1930s Spain, just prior to the outbreak of the civil war. The young author, ignorant of the world and with few preconceptions, sets out on foot to cross Spain, busking for a living along the way. It's an enthralling account - but I couldn't help but wonder how reliable it was. By his own admission Lee didn't know a word of Spanish when he arrived, yet he's reporting conversations verbatim within days - so how much else of his account is exaggerated or romanticised? Was Spain
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May 06, 2011
Stay At Home Babe
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I absolutely loved this book. It's like an English On the Road and every sentence is constructed like poetry. It's a beautiful read and a driving narrative. When it was over, I wanted more. I read the sequel... it isn't more of the same. Be warned :).
Jan 19, 2011
David R.
rated it:
"Twenty years before Jack Kerouac set off On the Road, Lee left the safety of his rural English home and embarked on a wondrous adventure...Lee masterfully evokes the ambiance and tension of Europe on the eve of World War II. Lee's narration is like curling up on one's grandfather's lap and listening to stories of being attacked by wolves, hounded by the police, romanced by idealism, and seduced by beauty. This is a fine nonfiction complement to Ernest Hemingway's From Whom the Bell T More...
Apr 03, 2011
Dan
rated it:
Well the author wandered away as a young man, traveling just to see the world and earning his keep by playing the fiddle. He ends up in Spain in the 1930s. This is a wonderful book!
Aug 06, 2009
Chris
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Now that's what I call travel writing. What a life, what a writer. It made me want to bum around Spain for a year. If only I was 20 again and could play the fiddle.
Jan 21, 2009
Great so far. A working class guy gets up and just decides to go to London then on to spain. He was taking a year out way in the 1930's!
Nov 13, 2009
Christopher
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"Sometimes, leaving the road, I would walk into the sea and pull it voluptuously over my head, and stand momentarily drowned in the cool blind silence, in a salt-stung neutral nowhere."
--from chapter 9 East to Malaga
Walking and busking in Spain? Looking forward to this one.
Friends took turns reading chapters of Laurie Lee's tale on a trip to the red desert of southern Utah over Memorial Day weekend. We sat by the fire, by the side of the road, and i More...
Jul 14, 2011
Anne
rated it:
I really enjoyed this book, which got me in the mood for summer and traveling.
Sep 11, 2010
Lynne
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One of my favourite books in my younger adulthood. Beautiful writing. Loved it.
Oct 23, 2011
John
rated it:
An excellent and historic, if ordinary at times, memoir/travelogue tracing a wandering journey through organic and passionate 1930s Spain. Lee was a poet, of course, and so the chapters have a pleasing, verselike structure. It reaches for insight into the civil war that erupted as Lee lingered on the coast, but it is most memorable for the simple, seductive rhythms of his journey. An unexpected arrival in a hot, sleepy village, the warm embrace of peasants, long nights of music and wine and chee
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Mar 16, 2010
First read this book more than thirty-six years ago, and I'm amazed how differently I feel about it now. Perhaps it isn't a good thing to go back?
Jul 18, 2011
Nelson
rated it:
A reread. Better than I remembered. A stone cold absolute classic. Unmissable.
Aug 23, 2011
Julia
rated it:
Beautifully written in such a natural style it's as if someone's talking to you.
