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{{short description|1969 memoir by Laurie Lee}} |
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| oclc= 12104039 |
| oclc= 12104039 |
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|release_date= 1969 |
|release_date= 1969 |
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|publisher= [[André Deutsch]] (UK)<br>[[Atheneum Publishers]] (US)<br>[[David R. Godine, Publisher]] (US) |
|publisher= [[André Deutsch]] (UK)<br/>[[Atheneum Publishers]] (US)<br/>[[David R. Godine, Publisher]] (US) |
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| preceded_by=[[Cider with Rosie]] |
| preceded_by=[[Cider with Rosie]] |
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| followed_by = [[A Moment of War]] |
| followed_by = [[A Moment of War]] |
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}} |
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| ⚫ | '''''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning''''' (1969) is a memoir by [[Laurie Lee]], a British poet. It is a sequel to ''[[Cider with Rosie]]'' which detailed his life in |
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| ⚫ | '''''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning''''' (1969) is a memoir by [[Laurie Lee]], a British poet. It is a sequel to ''[[Cider with Rosie]]'' which detailed his early life in [[Gloucestershire]] after the [[First World War]]. In this sequel Lee leaves the security of his [[Cotswold]] village of Slad in Gloucestershire to start a new life, at the same time embarking on an epic journey on foot. |
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It is 1934, and as a young man Lee walks to London from his Cotswolds home. He is to live by playing the violin and by labouring on a London building site. When this work draws to a finish, and having picked up the phrase in Spanish for 'Will you please give me a glass of water?', he decides to go to Spain. He scrapes together a living by playing his violin outside the street cafés, and sleeps at night in his blanket under an open sky or in cheap, rough ''posadas''. For a year he tramps through Spain, from [[Vigo]] in the north to the south coast, where he is trapped by the outbreak of the [[Spanish Civil War]]. |
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It is 1934, and Lee walks to London from his Cotswolds home. He lives by playing the violin and, later, labouring on a building site in London. After this work draws to a finish, and having picked up the Spanish for "Will you please give me a glass of water?", he decides to go to Spain. He scrapes together a living by playing his violin outside cafés, and sleeps at night in his blanket under the open sky or in cheap, rough ''posadas''. For a year he tramps through Spain, from [[Vigo]] in the north to the south coast, where he is trapped by the outbreak of the [[Spanish Civil War]]. He is warmly welcomed by the Spaniards he meets and enjoys a generous hospitality even from the poorest villagers he encounters along the way. |
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== Synopsis == |
== Synopsis == |
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{{plot|date = April 2010}} |
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In 1934 Laurie Lee leaves his home in Gloucestershire for London. He visits [[Southampton]] and first tries his luck at playing his violin in the street. His apprenticeship proves profitable and he decides to move eastwards. He makes his way along the south coast, and then turns inland and heads north for London. There he meets his half-American girlfriend, Cleo, who is the daughter of an [[anarchism|anarchist]]. |
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=== '''In England''' === |
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In 1934 Laurie Lee leaves his home in [[Slad]], Gloucestershire, for London, one hundred miles away. Never having seen the sea before, he decides he will go by way of Southampton though it will add another hundred miles to his journey. He begins to walk towards the [[Wiltshire Downs]]. |
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Cleo's father finds him a job as a labourer and he rents a room, but has to move on as the room is taken over by a prostitute. He lives in London for almost a year as a member of a gang of wheelbarrow pushers. Once the building nears completion he knows that his time is up and decides to go to Spain because he knows the Spanish for "Will you please give me a glass of water?" |
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He visits [[Southampton]] and it is here that he first tries his luck at playing his violin in the streets. His apprenticeship proves profitable and with his pockets full of change he decides to move on eastwards. He catches his first glimpse of the sea a mile outside Southampton docks. Lee makes his way along the south coast, to [[Chichester]], where he is moved on by a policeman after playing ''[[Bless This House (song)|Bless This House]]'', to [[Bognor Regis]], and then on again to [[Worthing]]. From there he turns inland, to the "''wide-open [[South Downs|Downs]]''", and heads north for London. |
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He lands in [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]] in July 1935. Joining up with three young German musicians, he accompanies them around Vigo and then they split up outside [[Zamora, Spain|Zamora]]. By August 1935 he reaches [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], where he has a meeting with the South African poet [[Roy Campbell (poet)|Roy Campbell]] and his family, whom he comes across while playing his violin. They invite him to stay in their house. |
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As he makes his way to London, he lives on pressed dates and biscuits. He bumps into a veteran tramp, Alf, who gives him a very old and battered billy can for brewing up. Eventually, a few mornings later, coming out of a wood near [[Beaconsfield]] he sees London at last. He decides to take the underground, and finally meets up with his American girlfriend, Cleo, who is the daughter of an American [[anarchism|anarchist]]. |
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By the end of September Lee reaches the sea. Then he comes to the [[Sierra Morena]] mountains. He decides to turn west and follow the Guadalquivir, adding several months to his journey, and taking him to the sea in a roundabout way. He turns eastwards, heading along the bare coastal shelf of Andalusia. He hears talk of war in [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War|Abyssinia]]. He arrives at [[Tarifa]], making another stop over in [[Algeciras]]. |
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Living with her family in a dilapidated house on Putney Heath, Lee tries to make love to her but she is too full of her father's political ideology. Her father finds him a job as a labourer and he is able to rent a snug little room above a cafe on the Lower Richmond Road. However, he has to move on as his room is taken over by a prostitute, and ends up living with the Flynns, a [[Cockney]] family, who welcome him. He lives in London for almost a year as part of a gang of wheelbarrow pushers, supplying newly mixed cement to the builders. With money to spend, he whiles away his time wandering the London streets, scribbling poetry in his small bedroom and having occasional liaisons with some of the maids from the big houses around Putney Heath. However, once the building nears completion, he knows that his time is up and decides to go to Spain because he knows the phrase in Spanish for "Will you please give me a glass of water?". He pays £4 and takes a ship to [[Vigo]], a port of the north-west coast of Spain. |
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| ⚫ | He decides to stick to his plan to follow the coast round Spain, and sets off for [[Málaga]], stopping in [[Gibraltar]]. During his last days in Malaga his violin breaks. After his new line of work, acting as a guide to British tourists, is curtailed by local guides, he meets a young German who gives him a violin. |
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=== '''In Spain''' === |
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He lands in [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]] in July 1935. The first half of his journey takes him from Vigo to [[Madrid]]. He has a tent, a blanket in which his violin is wrapped, and normally some fruit, bread and cheese to eat along the way. Joining up with a group of three young German musicians, he accompanies them around Vigo and then they split up outside [[Zamora, Spain|Zamora]]. Passing through [[Toro, Spain|Toro]], he watches a religious procession in which a statue of the Mother of Toro is taken around the town. Lee leaves town the next day, and gives a vivid description of the searing heat of the Spanish sun. |
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[[Valladolid]] is 'a dark square city hard as its syllables'. It is full of beggars, cripples and beaten-down young Spanish conscripts who have nothing to do in their leisure time. The chapter ends on a sour note with his landlord's wife screaming and shouting at her husband because the Borracho{{who?|date=March 2014}} has returned home drunk and tried to have sex with their daughter, Elvira. [[Image:AcueductoSegovia edit1.jpg|thumb|left|180px|''[[Segovia]].."Here were churches, castles, and medieval walls standing sharp in the evening light, but all dwarfed by that extraordinary phenomenon of masonry, the Roman aqueduct, which overshadowed the whole...'The Aqueduct', said the farmer, pointing with his whip, in case by chance I had failed to notice it.''"]] |
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Making his way to [[Segovia]], Lee's feet become hardened and his Spanish is also improving after almost a month on the road. He spends only a few nights in the town because he is impatient to reach Madrid. He makes the long climb through the [[Sierra de Guadarrama]] mountains and is finally given a lift by two young booksellers in their van. |
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In February 1936 the Socialists win the election and the [[Popular Front (Spain)|Popular Front]] begins. In the spring the villagers burn down the church, but then change their minds. In the middle of May there is a strike and the peasants come in from the countryside to lend their support, as the village splits between Fascists and Communists. |
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Counting London, Madrid is only the second major city he has seen. However, he loves the city and is impressed by the pride that its citizens feel. He spends his time drinking wine in the cool taverns during the daytime and playing his violin in the evenings in the older part of the city, the cliffs above the Manzanares. He lives in a cheap ''posada'' and befriends Concha, the girl who buys his breakfast. She is a husky young widow from [[Aranjuez]] and spends her daytimes idling about, waiting for the return of her boyfriend from the [[Asturias]]. Sometimes Lee sits out the morning by rubbing fish-oil into her hair. His last night is spent on a late-night drinking binge. He returns drunk to his ''posada'' and is helped into bed by Concha, who makes the sign of the cross before she joins him. |
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In the middle of July 1936 war breaks out. Manolo helps to organise a militia. [[Granada]] is held by the rebels, and so is Almuñécar's neighbour Altofaro. A British destroyer from Gibraltar arrives to pick up any British subjects who might be marooned on the coast and Lee is taken on board. |
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By August 1935 Lee reaches [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], where he has a meeting with the South African poet [[Roy Campbell (poet)|Roy Campbell]] and his family, whom he comes across while playing his violin in the open-air cafés in the Plaza de Zocodover''.'' The Campbells invite him to stay in their house, which lies close to the cathedral. Campbell spends the daytime sleeping but comes to life in the evenings. |
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The epilogue describes Lee's return to his family home in Gloucestershire and his desire to help his comrades in Spain. He finally manages to make his way through France and crosses the Pyrenees into Spain in December 1937. |
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After a final day of drinking with the poet, Lee makes his departure the next day and is accompanied by the poet as far as the bridge by which he would cross the gorge of the [[Tagus]]. By the end of September he has reached the sea, having passed through [[Valdepeñas]], [[Córdoba, Spain|Cordova]], and Seville to reach [[Cádiz]]. He looks back on his last month on the road through September. He describes Valdepeñas as 'a surprise: a small graceful town surrounded by rich vineyards and prosperous villas – a pocket of good fortune which seemed to produce without effort some of the most genial wines in Spain.' It had been a very friendly town and whilst busking one evening three young men had invited him to go with them to a brothel. Lee played his violin and watched the customers coming and going as he was plied with wine by the old grandfather who ran the place. There were four girls, two sisters and two cousins, and the whole establishment had possessed a very intimate atmosphere, 'a casual atmosphere of neighbourly visiting, hosted by these vague and sleepy girls; subdued talk, a little music, an air of domestic eroticism, with unhurried comings and goings.' |
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Then he comes to the [[Sierra Morena]] mountains, "one more of those east-west ramparts which go ranging across Spain and divide its people into separate races." Entering the province of [[Andalusia]] through fields of ripening melons, he sees the first signs of the southern people: men in tall Cordobese hats, blue shirts, scarlet waistbands, and girls with smouldering Arab faces. Instead of taking the road south to [[Granada]], he decided to turn west and follow the Guadalquivir, adding several months to his journey, and taking him to the sea in a roundabout way. He lives in [[Seville]]. He lives on fruit and dried fish, and sleeps at night in a yard in [[Triana, Seville|Triana]] a ramshackle [[barrio]] on the north bank of the river, which has 'a seedy vigour, full of tile-makers and free-range poultry, of medieval stables, bursting with panniered donkeys, squabbling wives and cooking pots.' Whilst he spends his evening trying to get cool on the flat roof of the Café Faro, eating chips and gazing at the river, he hears the first mention of the upcoming war. |
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Disliking [[Cadiz]], Lee turns eastwards, heading along the bare coastal shelf of Andalusia. He hears talk of war in [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War|Abyssinia]]. He arrives at [[Tarifa]], the southernmost point of Europe, 'skulking behind its Arab walls' and moves on into the country, making another stop over in [[Algeciras]], a town which he very much likes for its aura of illicitness. |
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Half in love with Algeciras, he felt he "could have stayed on there indefinitely" but decides nevertheless to stick to his plan to follow the coast round Spain, and sets off for [[Málaga]]. He makes a stop over in [[Gibraltar]], "more like [[Torquay]]", is questioned by the police, and told to report to their station at night. It takes him five days to walk to Malaga, following a coastline smelling of hot seaweed, thyme and shellfish, and occasionally passing through cork-woods smoking with the camp fires of gypsies. At night he finds a field and wraps himself up in his blanket. |
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In Málaga, he stays in a ''posada'' (an [[inn]]), sharing the courtyard with a dozen families who are mostly mountain people selling their beautiful hand-woven [[Alpujarras]] blankets and cloth in the city. The young girls are some of the most graceful he has ever seen, 'light-footed and nimble as deer, with long floating arms and articulate bodies which turned every movement into a ritual dance.' Malaga was full of foreigners, a snug expatriate colony, and everyone is very chummy apart from the English debs with 'that particular rainswept grey of their English eyes, only noticeable when abroad.' |
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Winter 1935. Lee decides to hole-up in [[Almuñécar]], sixty miles east of Malaga. He manages to get work in a hotel run by a Swiss, Herr Brandt, who has unfortunately arrived there twenty years too early. The whole area is very poor, with the peasants just managing to scrape a living from the sugar cane grown in the delta, and from the sea. |
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February 1936. The Socialists win the election and a [[Popular Front (Spain)|Popular Front]], People's Government, arrives. As Spring appears a whiff of change is in the air, with a loosening of social and sexual behaviour and manners. The villagers, in an act of revolt, burn down the church but then do a volte-face when Feast Day arrives and the images of Christ and the Virgin are brought out into the open, loaded as usual on the fishermen's backs. In the middle of May, there is a strike and the peasants come in from the countryside to lend their support as the village splits down the middle between 'Fascists' and 'Communists'. There is also hope in the air that the working class will see an improvement in their terrible living conditions. |
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In the middle of July 1936 war breaks out. There had been anti-Government uprisings in the garrisons of [[Spanish Morocco]] – at [[Melilla]], [[Tetuan]] and [[Larache]]. General [[Francisco Franco]], ''the butcher of the [[Asturian miners' strike of 1934|Asturias]]'', had flown from the [[Canary Islands|Canaries]] to lead the rebels. With the disappearance of the police, " the village was on its own: Government supporters facing the enemy within." Manolo and El Gato (the leader of one of the new-formed unions) start to organise some kind of militia. [[Granada]] is held by the rebels, and so is Almunecar's neighbour ''Altofaro'', ten miles down the coast. Almuñécar is mistakenly fired on by a Government warship that thinks it is shelling rebel-held Altofaro. Lee hears on ''Radio Sevilla'' [[Queipo de Llano]] exulting in the fall of the city. The rebel general is drunk and slurs his phrases. "''Christ had triumphed, he ranted, through God's army in Spain, of which Generalissimo Franco was the sainted leader...'Viva España! Viva la Virgen!' ''". Finally, a British destroyer from Gibraltar arrives to pick up any British subjects who might be marooned on the coast. Lee and the English novelist from whom he is renting a room are taken on board and he takes his last look at Almuñécar and Spain as they grow smaller in the distance. |
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The Epilogue describes Lee's return to his family home in Gloucestershire and his desire to help his comrades in Spain. He is held back by a liaison with a wealthy lover but finally decides to make his way through France to cross the Pyrenees into Spain. After a desperate climb starting from [[Ceret]] in the foothills, in which he gets caught in a snow storm, he ends up in another French village. Here he is helped by a peasant, after another tortuous climb through the thick snow, to cross the border once more into Spain.{{Primary sources|Article|date=June 2007}} |
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==Title == |
==Title == |
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The title of the book is the first line of the Gloucestershire folk song "[[The Banks of Sweet Primroses]]".<ref>[http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/displaysong.php?songid=451 'The Banks of Sweet Primroses' lyrics] on Folkinfo.org {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403043749/http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/displaysong.php?songid=451 |date=3 April 2008 }}</ref> |
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==Critical responses== |
==Critical responses== |
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Robert McFarlane<ref>Robert McFarlane, book review, The Guardian, 20/6/2014</ref> compares Lee's travels with those of his contemporary, [[Patrick Leigh Fermor]]. Both walked across parts of Europe that were in political turmoil between the world wars. McFarlane praises Lee's use of metaphor and argues that the "rose-tinted" descriptions in ''Cider with Rosie'' are replaced by "very dark passages". Sex with several partners is described "euphemistically". Life on the road is another key theme. ''As I Walked Out'' is about movement, where ''Cider with Rosie'' is about staying in one place. |
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{{Empty section|date=July 2010}} |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
{{Reflist}} |
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* ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'', Penguin Books (1971) ISBN |
* ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'', Penguin Books (1971) {{ISBN|0140033181}} |
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== External links == |
== External links == |
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*{{cite news |publisher= [[BBC]] |title= BBC Four – Audio Interviews – Laurie Lee |date= 21 September 1985 |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/leel1.shtml |accessdate= 22 May 2007}} |
*{{cite news |publisher= [[BBC]] |title= BBC Four – Audio Interviews – Laurie Lee |date= 21 September 1985 |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/leel1.shtml |accessdate= 22 May 2007}} |
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*{{cite web |publisher= Penguin Group (Canada) |title= Laurie Lee |url= http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,0_1000008729,00.html |accessdate= 22 May 2007}} |
*{{cite web |publisher= Penguin Group (Canada) |title= Laurie Lee |url= http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,0_1000008729,00.html |accessdate= 22 May 2007}} |
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| ⚫ | *{{cite web |title= Reading Room: Book Reviews: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee |publisher= www.ExperiencePlus.com |author= Rick Price |date= 3 December 2003 |url= http://www.experienceplus.com/reading_room/archives/2003/12/as_i_walked_out_1.html |access-date= 22 May 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070608202035/http://www.experienceplus.com/reading_room/archives/2003/12/as_i_walked_out_1.html |archive-date= 8 June 2007 |url-status= dead |df= dmy-all }} |
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| ⚫ | *{{cite web|title=A Rough Sketch of Laurie Lee's Spanish Journey on Google Maps |url=http://goo.gl/maps/bYgAI|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140811191056/http://goo.gl/maps/bYgAI|url-status=dead|archive-date=2014-08-11}} |
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| ⚫ | *{{cite web |title= Reading Room: Book Reviews: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee |publisher= www.ExperiencePlus.com |author= Rick Price |date= 3 December 2003 |url= http://www.experienceplus.com/reading_room/archives/2003/12/as_i_walked_out_1.html | |
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[[Category:English non-fiction books]] |
[[Category:English non-fiction books]] |
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[[Category:British memoirs]] |
[[Category:British memoirs]] |
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[[Category:André Deutsch books]] |
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Latest revision as of 18:59, 5 June 2024
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2015) |
 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Laurie Lee |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Leonard Rosoman |
| Cover artist | Shirley Thompson |
| Publisher | André Deutsch (UK) Atheneum Publishers (US) David R. Godine, Publisher (US) |
Publication date | 1969 |
| ISBN | 0-233-96117-8 |
| OCLC | 12104039 |
| 914.6/0481 19 | |
| LC Class | PR6023.E285 Z463 1985 |
| Preceded by | Cider with Rosie |
| Followed by | A Moment of War |
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) is a memoir by Laurie Lee, a British poet. It is a sequel to Cider with Rosie which detailed his early life in Gloucestershire after the First World War. In this sequel Lee leaves the security of his Cotswold village of Slad in Gloucestershire to start a new life, at the same time embarking on an epic journey on foot.
It is 1934, and Lee walks to London from his Cotswolds home. He lives by playing the violin and, later, labouring on a building site in London. After this work draws to a finish, and having picked up the Spanish for "Will you please give me a glass of water?", he decides to go to Spain. He scrapes together a living by playing his violin outside cafés, and sleeps at night in his blanket under the open sky or in cheap, rough posadas. For a year he tramps through Spain, from Vigo in the north to the south coast, where he is trapped by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. He is warmly welcomed by the Spaniards he meets and enjoys a generous hospitality even from the poorest villagers he encounters along the way.
Synopsis
[edit]In 1934 Laurie Lee leaves his home in Gloucestershire for London. He visits Southampton and first tries his luck at playing his violin in the street. His apprenticeship proves profitable and he decides to move eastwards. He makes his way along the south coast, and then turns inland and heads north for London. There he meets his half-American girlfriend, Cleo, who is the daughter of an anarchist.
Cleo's father finds him a job as a labourer and he rents a room, but has to move on as the room is taken over by a prostitute. He lives in London for almost a year as a member of a gang of wheelbarrow pushers. Once the building nears completion he knows that his time is up and decides to go to Spain because he knows the Spanish for "Will you please give me a glass of water?"
He lands in Galicia in July 1935. Joining up with three young German musicians, he accompanies them around Vigo and then they split up outside Zamora. By August 1935 he reaches Toledo, where he has a meeting with the South African poet Roy Campbell and his family, whom he comes across while playing his violin. They invite him to stay in their house.
By the end of September Lee reaches the sea. Then he comes to the Sierra Morena mountains. He decides to turn west and follow the Guadalquivir, adding several months to his journey, and taking him to the sea in a roundabout way. He turns eastwards, heading along the bare coastal shelf of Andalusia. He hears talk of war in Abyssinia. He arrives at Tarifa, making another stop over in Algeciras.
He decides to stick to his plan to follow the coast round Spain, and sets off for Málaga, stopping in Gibraltar. During his last days in Malaga his violin breaks. After his new line of work, acting as a guide to British tourists, is curtailed by local guides, he meets a young German who gives him a violin.
In the winter of 1935 Lee decides to stay in Almuñécar. He manages to get work in a hotel. Lee and his friend Manolo, the hotel's waiter, drink in the local bar alongside the other villagers. Manolo is the leader of a group of fishermen and labourers, and they discuss the expected revolution.
In February 1936 the Socialists win the election and the Popular Front begins. In the spring the villagers burn down the church, but then change their minds. In the middle of May there is a strike and the peasants come in from the countryside to lend their support, as the village splits between Fascists and Communists.
In the middle of July 1936 war breaks out. Manolo helps to organise a militia. Granada is held by the rebels, and so is Almuñécar's neighbour Altofaro. A British destroyer from Gibraltar arrives to pick up any British subjects who might be marooned on the coast and Lee is taken on board.
The epilogue describes Lee's return to his family home in Gloucestershire and his desire to help his comrades in Spain. He finally manages to make his way through France and crosses the Pyrenees into Spain in December 1937.
Title
[edit]The title of the book is the first line of the Gloucestershire folk song "The Banks of Sweet Primroses".[1]
Critical responses
[edit]Robert McFarlane[2] compares Lee's travels with those of his contemporary, Patrick Leigh Fermor. Both walked across parts of Europe that were in political turmoil between the world wars. McFarlane praises Lee's use of metaphor and argues that the "rose-tinted" descriptions in Cider with Rosie are replaced by "very dark passages". Sex with several partners is described "euphemistically". Life on the road is another key theme. As I Walked Out is about movement, where Cider with Rosie is about staying in one place.
References
[edit]- ^ 'The Banks of Sweet Primroses' lyrics on Folkinfo.org Archived 3 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Robert McFarlane, book review, The Guardian, 20/6/2014
- As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, Penguin Books (1971) ISBN 0140033181
External links
[edit]- "BBC Four – Audio Interviews – Laurie Lee". BBC. 21 September 1985. Retrieved 22 May 2007.
- "Laurie Lee". Penguin Group (Canada). Retrieved 22 May 2007.
- Rick Price (3 December 2003). "Reading Room: Book Reviews: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee". www.ExperiencePlus.com. Archived from the original on 8 June 2007. Retrieved 22 May 2007.
- Petri Liukkonen. "Laurie Lee". Books and Writers.
- "A Rough Sketch of Laurie Lee's Spanish Journey on Google Maps". Archived from the original on 11 August 2014.