As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (Laurie Lee)

Laurie Lee
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

I read this back in 2021 and got rid of the book. Debbie then gave it to me as a present in 2025 and I thought I'd not bother to read it. However, having picked it up and idly leafed through it I was hooked and read again. Original review:

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

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.

Don Quixote (Miguel De Cervantes)

Miguel De Cervantes
Translated by Edith Grossman
Don Quixote

I read this a long time ago and on reading again I was amazed at how fantastic it is. In many meanings of the word. It's written in two books that were written a few years apart. The first is about our hero(oes) adventuring as a knight errant and squire believing that they (or at least Don Quixote does) are destined to give justice to the world as they travel around, as if they are medieval knights as written about in legends such as King Arthur and the Round Table. If you've ever tried to read those they are pretty dull and repetitive and whilst much of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza's rovings are not exactly enthralling it's the scrapes that they get into that add the interest to the stories. And brilliantly written (and translated) too. I won't give away spoilers but most who encounter our Don think he's mad. Which he is or at least very delusioned. The second book is similar in basic story but rather than physical injuries incurred it's more about people laughing at the madness of both knight and squire having heard about them from the first book (explanation below). Then those same people being amazed at some very cogent philosophical thought and wisdom relating to governments and governing that come from each amongst their mad ravings. This is especially true in Sancho Panza continually quoting proverbs that often seem mad and irrelevant but are in fact apt. Don Quixote himself tells Sancho to stop doing this often by using proverbs himself. This is meant to be the first modern novel and although over 400 years old it has a very modern twist in that it's recursive. The second  book refers back to the first and many character have read the first and are then leading the pair on to see them act in the same mad manner. Another twist is that someone else wrote a follow up to part 1 and a lot of part 2 refers to how that is a false account and how rubbish it and it's author are. They also meet someone who has supposedly met the false Don Q and Sancha and gave an account that was written in the false Don Quixote part 2. It's a device of a story within a story. The author seems to be very accepting of "Moors" despite some bad mouthing rants against their expulsion from Spain. It was supposedly (for the sake of the story within a story within a story) written down by a Moor called Cide Hamete Benengeli and then translated into Spanish (Castilian to be precise). Many of the incidental heroes and heroines are Moors. And some are helped to escape the inquisition that was prevalent at the time of writing so in some ways a dangerous act for Cervantes. Who himself had been captured and enslaved in north Africa. All in all well worth the hundreds of pages needed to read this book. As many of the sub-stories have beginnings and ends it's quite easy to read without having to read vast chunks at once as you won't forget the basic plot.