As I Walked Out One Midsummer’s Morning by Laurie Lee
12.00 noon BST
Goldster Book Club
As I Walked Out One Summer’s Morning by Laurie Lee is an auto-biographical account of youth with brilliant writing, captivating story-telling, observations on destitution in Britain in the 1930s and Spain heading toward war. Lee was 19-years-old – ‘still soft at the edges, but with a confident belief in good fortune…excited, vain glorious knowing I had far to go; but not, as yet, how far. It was bright Sunday morning in early June, the right time to be leaving home.’ At the end of this magnificent book, Lee is signing up to fight fascism in the Spanish civil war.
I am sorry, we cannot join you Humphrey as we are preparing to go to Madeira on the 5th. However, we wish you well. A few words about your chosen book.
It (and the rest of the trilogy) made a huge impression on me. His walking in severe heat through Spain, describing the “Burnished Copper” land and nearly dying. I recall his renting a sleeping space for half a peseta (yes half a peseta) a night in a large open coral with huge gate posts.
We saw such gate posts in the RASTRA area of Madrid, when we went to the Sunday market there years ago. I thought of him then and watched a chap with small items for sale, spread on newspaper in the gutter, one such being a single gents, black shoe! When you go on to “A moment of war”, picture Mr Lee walking across the Pyrenees in winter in just a jacket and cap. No wonder they nearly shot him as a spy. What a writer, nothing like him now, painted pictures with words, I recognised his place in Slad from the description. Have fun.