The protagonist’s mother, abandoned by her husband with two families to cope with, leads a life of extraordinary drudgery, yet her longing for, and recognition of, the greater things in life rarely falters. Yet village life could be brutal, and he acknowledges its bitter side too, the grief and violence, the neighbours destined for the workhouse. I had previously read this a gazillion years ago, at a time when even Tarzan didn't seem at all far-fetched. 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). Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie is a classic of English rural writing, lauded for its evocation of Gloucestershire’s Slad Valley in the early 20th century and the last days of an intensely experienced, millennium-old way of life .

She is the author of The Little Library Cookbook, The Little Library Year and The Little Library Christmas, cookbooks which take inspiration from literature. Cider With Rosie is a memoir of Laurie Lee’s life in the Cotswolds immediately following World War I, and reminded me of A. At all times wonderfully evocative and poignant, Cider With Rosie is a charming memoir of Laurie Lee's childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a world that is tangibly real and yet reminiscent of a now distant past. The violent cabbage-stump Charlie who lived only for fighting, and Albert the Devil who filled local souls with disquiet.From the outset I was treated to compelling and deeply descriptive writing, which caused me to travel to that Cotswold village, where Lee was raised. I had previously read a Penguin 60 excerpt collection To War in Spain which took from Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War.

I must admit, I wasn't expecting much from this, but I'm thrilled to report that this was a beautiful book, and it was one that I was sad to finish. Music was by Wilfred Josephs, and Rosemary Leach was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her roles as Lee's mother and as Helen in The Mosedale Horseshoe.Yet amidst the pastoral splendour nestles violence and sinister undertones: Miss Flynn's suicide in the pond, the utter despair of the Brown's: decades of love obliterated pitilessly as old age separates them in a workhouse - both dead within a week. I was reminded, with a jolt, in amongst the stories of day trips to Weston-super-Mare, and blackberry picking, and carolling in the snow, of the violence, grief and sometimes sheer brutality of village life. Even the moldy, dripping, cottage walls, constant struggle for food, nine living and three dead siblings, numbing cold of winter, and common English brawling and beatings don't seem that bad because they're described so beautifully. You can unsubscribe from our list at any point by changing your preferences, or contacting us directly. One of the most perfectly written books I know of (right up there with A Month in the Country and The Remains of the Day).

Slightly Foxed brings back forgotten voices through its Slightly Foxed and Plain Foxed Editions, a series of beautifully produced little pocket hardback reissues of classic memoirs, all of them absorbing and highly individual. Having been forced to leave school early because of her mother's death and the need to look after her brothers and father, she then went into domestic service, working as a maid in large houses. And you can't have a rural idyll without a romp in the hay so why they give it to pubescent boys as a set text at school I'll never know. Peace Day in 1919 is a colourful affair, the procession ending up at the squire's house, where he and his elderly mother make speeches. Lee states that "quiet incest flourished where the roads were bad", and states that the village neither approved nor disapproved, but neither did it complain to authority.Cider With Bloody Rosie," I gasped (um, mine wasn't a version with 'bloody' in the title, just so you know). The family also makes a four-mile hike to Sheepscombe to visit their grandfather and Uncle Charlie and his family. She is replaced by Miss Wardley from Birmingham, who "wore sharp glass jewellery" and imposes discipline that is "looser but stronger".

The intention was there to rape a Christian girl, probably because she is extremely innocent, and his descriptions of said girl aren't especially flattering. Having left to work for her father in his pub, The Plough, she then answered an advertisement, "Widower (four children) Seeks Housekeeper" and met the man who became Lee's father. It is fortunate that Laurie Lee happened to be there to experience it and possessed the ability to document it with the vision of a poet before it disappeared.It is 1917 and Laurie Lee and his family have just arrived in the village of Slad in Gloucestershire for the first time. Firstly let me admit that I'm a fan of history and not just battles, Kings, Queens, dates etc but socila history as well. To find out what personal information we collect and how we use it, please visit our privacy policy. Cider with Rosie is a wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change.