Laurie Lee

Laurie Lee (June 26, 1914 - May 13, 1997), was a poet and novelist from the village of Slad, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, England.

Related Topics:
June 26 - 1914 - May 13 - 1997 - Poet - Novelist - Slad - Stroud - Gloucestershire - England

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His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie (1959), As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991). Whilst the first volume famously deals with his childhood in the idyllic Slad valley, the second deals with his leaving home for London and his first visit to Spain in 1934, and the third with his return in December 1937 to join the Republican forces.

Related Topics:
Autobiographical - Cider with Rosie - 1959 - As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning - A Moment of War - London - 1934 - 1937

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Other works include I Can't Stay Long (1975), a collection of occasional writing. He also published a number of poems during World War II, and later his memoirs of the Spanish Civil War.

Related Topics:
World War II - Spanish Civil War

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Lee attended Stroud Central School, leaving at fifteen to become an errand boy. He later worked as an office clerk and a builder's labourer, and lived in London for a year before travelling around Spain. He started to study for an art degree, but returned to Spain as an International Brigade volunteer. His service in the Spanish Civil War was cut short by his physical shortcomings (he suffered from epilepsy). During the Second World War, he became a scriptwriter with the General Post Office (GPO) film unit, writing scripts for numerous documentary films.

Related Topics:
London - Spain - International Brigade - Epilepsy - Second World War

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Cider with Rosie continues to be one of the UK's most popular books, and is sometimes used as a set English Literature text for schoolchildren.

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Lee provided a great deal of valuable support to the Brotherhood of Ruralists in their attempts to establish themselves in the 1970s, and he continued to do so until his death; his essay "Understanding the Ruralists" opened the Brotherhood's major 1993 retrospective book. Indeed, it was Lee who is said to have given them the name of 'Ruralists' (ref.).

Related Topics:
Brotherhood of Ruralists - 1993

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