Cider With Rosie

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. These are, of course, the second and third books of his autobiographical trilogy. On the strength of that, I bought book 2, and found book 1 shortly after.

Cider With Rosie tells of Lee's childhood. It is loosely linear, but organised in to thematic chapters, so pulls things out of full linear narrative to keep them together. The chapters are themed with stages of the authors childhood - first memories, the family structure, school memories, the neighbouring old women, etc, through to his experiences through puberty (cue Rosie) and his sisters getting engaged and preparing to leave the house.

It was a lively telling of Lee's early life in the Slad Valley in Gloucestershire, starting in 1917. A poet, I believe, and his writing style probably takes something from that. I found his amusing and engaging in sharing his stories, but really, I look forward to the second part of this story, and to War in Spain.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

Laurie Lee grew up in a rural part of England during the
time just after the Great War. His father abandoned his mother with
eight children to raise. Lee was almost always hungry and cold. But
life never seemed hard; somehow it seemed joyous and delightful.

I was especially taken with the chapter about the devilments children
and young people got into during Lee's time. Back in Lee's day, as
today, terrible things happened. But somehow the village and its
people just seemed to deal with them, not making them into events of
enormous evil as we seem to do today.

I loved reading about the day to day living of Lee during his
childhood. Everything seemed so much more alive then, with things to
taste and touch and smell. Lee revels in his life. The stories he
tells makes the time seem glorious.