Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee

"Cider with Rosie" has to be one of my most memorable, poignant and haunting reads. I discovered it when I was 16 in an English class whilst learning about descriptive writing and use of imagery. I didn't have to read it, I was just shown an example of his work, but it lured me in hook line and sinker and I couldn't put the book down. The book is an evocative memoir of his childhood growing up in a Cotswold village. He captures the time and the place and it feels real. He describes people and places in such a manner that conveys reality - he paints a picture with his words and he excels in this art. I think the opening paragraph is simply ...  Read the complete review

Laurie Lee is one of my favourite Authors, and this book demonstrates to a certain extent why. As a writer, I am expected to describe in such a way as to convey to readers the reality. I succeed, although not half as well as Laurie Lee with his work. It was Laurie Lee that gave me the phrase that I use when teaching writing about painting a picture with words, and In Cider with Rosie, he excells in the art. It is hard to believe that time has passed so quickly. Laurie Lee was born in 1914 and died in 1997. Cider with Rosie is autobiographical and tells of the authors years growing up and was published in 1959, when I was seven years old, and when I look ...  Read the complete review

One of the pleasant surprises I found in my Christmas stocking this year was a hardback illustrated copy of Cider with Rosie, one of my all time favourite books. For those of you who haven’t read the book, ‘Cider With Rosie’ is Laurie Lee's stunning story of his life in the heart of the Gloucestershire countryside between the years 1917 and 1934. His autobiography conjures up a world of unsophisticated warmth and beauty as it tells of his early life from childhood to adolescence. The story is very nostalgic and captures a vanished era in scintillating prose, bordering on poetry, with a wicked sense of humour. It is incredibly ...  Read the complete review

"I was set down from the carrier's cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began." So begins "Cider with Rosie", the true story of a childhood spent in remote rural Gloucestershire around the time of the first World War. It is a hard life for Laurie Lee and his family. Laurie's mother met (and fell in love with) a man who already had four children when she married him. He stayed around long enough to produce a further four, then abandoned his family for ever, leaving Mrs Lee alone to bring up seven children - Marjorie, Dorothy, Phyllis, Harold, Jack and Laurie and Tony the ...  Read the complete review

Cider with Rosie is an autobiographical 'novel' by Laurie Lee which gives an account of Lee's childhood in the in the idyllic Slad Valley in Gloucestershire, Britain. As well as a wonderful portrayal of how a child takes in the world and the general learning experience, it can also be read as a charming nostalgia piece in general It is set in the time-frame just after the First World War. It really is a beautiful read and a great account of village life which has long since disappeared. There is a wonderful feeling of the closeness between a child and his mother in the early stages of this book. The curiosity of a child towards strangers comes ...  Read the complete review