Laurie Lee
As I Walked Out One Summer Morning
As I Walked Out One Summer Morning
The sequel in Laurie's life to Cider with Rosie in which, as you may guess, he leaves his village of Slad in the Cotswolds and walks through southern England before getting a ferry to Spain. Which he then walks the length of staying in cheap posadas, or dossing at the side of the road, and gets by on friendliness and playing his violin. It's the description of character, place and wildlife which are so evocative and make this such a joy to read. You really are transported to a sunset in the Sierra mountains or wake sodden with dew in a wheat field. His description of Gibraltar as covered in clouds like the West Country (I grew up at the southern end of the Cotswolds Way) made me dig out my photo album of when me and Simon travelled to London then hitched through France and trained through Spain into Morocco and yes my photo is a big rock with the upper half covered by cloud rising above it in a big ball. No other clouds around. A photo of the same ferry journey looking back to Morocco is of a shimmering sea without a cloud in the sky. The time in Spain is abruptly ended by the Spanish Civil War to which he returns in the epilogue.
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