Laurie Lee was born in Stroud, Gloucester in England. In 1934, aged 19 years, he set out one morning to see how far he could walk, heading in a southerly direction. His feet eventually took him, a good few months later, to Andalucia and into the heart of the Spanish Civil War. In the 1960s he wrote a trio of memoirs, reflecting on his experiences, starting with his quirky child hood experiences of village life in Gloucester (Cider with Rosie), and then moving onto his life on the road and his engagement with the Spanish Civil War (As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War).
Laurie Lee died in 1997. He was aged 82.
As I walked out One Midsummer Morning (1969)
“It was a bright Sunday morning in early June, the right time to be leaving home. My three sisters and a brother had already gone before me; two other brothers had yet to make up their minds They were still sleeping that morning, but my mother had got up early and cooked me a heavy breakfast, had stood wordlessly while I ate it, her hand on my chair, and had then helped me pack up my few belongings. There had been no fuss, no appeals, no attempts at advice or persuasion, only a long and searching look. Then, with my bags on my back, I’d gone out into the early sunshine and climbed through the long wet grass to the road.
It was 1934. I was nineteen years old, still soft at the edges, but with a confident belief in good fortune. I carried a small rolled-up tent, a violin in a blanket, a change of clothes, a of treacle biscuits, and some cheese, I was excited, vain-glorious, knowing I had far to go; but not, as yet, how far. As I left home that morning and walked away from the sleeping village, it never occurred to me that others had done this before me.”
