Audiobooks by Laurie Lee

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning Audiobook

Brought to you by Penguin. As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning is the moving follow-up to Laurie Lee's acclaimed Cider with Rosie Abandoning the Cotswolds village that raised him, the young Laurie Lee walks to London. There he makes a living labouring and playing the violin. But, deciding to travel further a field and knowing only the Spanish phrase for 'Will you please give me a glass of water?', he heads for Spain. With just a blanket to sleep under and his trusty violin, he spends a year crossing Spain, from Vigo in the north to the southern coast. Only the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War puts an end to his extraordinary peregrinations . . . 'He writes like an angel and conveys the pride and vitality of the humblest Spanish life with unfailing sharpness, zest and humour' Sunday Times 'There's a formidable, instant charm in the writing that genuinely makes it difficult to put the book down' New Statesman 'A beautiful piece of writing' Observer © Laurie Lee 1969 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Laurie Lee (Author), Laurie Lee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Village Christmas: And Other Notes on the English Year

Brought to you by Penguin. From the author of Cider With Rosie, Village Christmas is a moving, lyrical portrait of England through the changing years and seasons. Laurie Lee left his childhood home in the Cotswolds when he was nineteen, but it remained with him throughout his life until, many years later, he returned for good. This collection brings to life the sights, sounds, landscapes and traditions of his home - from centuries-old May Day rituals to his own patch of garden, from carol singing in crunching snow to pub conversations and songs. Here too he writes about the mysteries of love, living in wartime Chelsea, Winston Churchill's wintry funeral and his battle, in old age, to save his beloved Slad Valley from developers. Told with a warm sense of humour and a powerful sense of history, Village Christmas brings us a picture of a vanished world. 'Magical' Daily Mail 'I finished it with an ache in my heart and a tear in my eye' Spectator 'Brings to life the landscapes and traditions of Lee's home in Gloucestershire, from centuries-old May Day rituals and carol-singing on Christmas Eve, to his battle in old age to save his beloved Slad valley from developers' Guardian 'Simply written, observant and shot through with Lee's characteristic humility ... Against his whitewashed prose are touches of beauty' The Times Literary Supplement © Laurie Lee 2015 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Laurie Lee (Author), David Sibley (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Moment of War

Brought to you by Penguin. A Moment of War is the powerful and harrowing final book in Laurie Lee's acclaimed trilogy that began with Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee was still a young man when he decided to fight for the Republican cause in Spain's civil war. But though he braved icy, storm-swept mountains alone to contact Republican sympathisers, he was immediately suspected of being a Nationalist spy. Imprisoned and almost executed by his own side, he eventually joined the International Brigade. This is the story of his experiences as a Republican soldier, fighting for the losing side in a doomed war. 'A great, heart-stopping narrative of one young Englishman's part in the war in Spain . . . crafted by a poet, stamping an indelible image of the boredom, random cruelty and stupidity of war' - Literary Review 'This story aches with unforgotten cold and trembles with unforgotten terror' -Guardian Laurie Lee has written some of the best-loved travel books in the English language. Born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 1914, he was educated at Slad village school and Stroud Central School. At the age of nineteen he walked to London and then travelled on foot through Spain, where he was trapped by the outbreak of the Civil War. He later returned by crossing the Pyrenees, as he recounted in A Moment of War. In 1950 he married Catherine Polge and they had one daughter. Laurie Lee published four collections of poems: The Sun My Monument (1944), The Bloom of Candles (1947), My Many-Coated Man (1955) and Pocket Poems (1960). His other works include The Voyage of Magellan (1948), A Rose for Winter (1955), The Firstborn (1964), I Can't Stay Long (1975) and Two Women (1983). He also wrote three bestselling volumes of autobiography: Cider with Rosie (1959), which has sold over six million copies worldwide, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991). He died in May 1997. © Laurie Lee 1992 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Laurie Lee (Author), David Sibley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Down in the Valley: A Writer's Landscape

Brought to you by Penguin. An enhanced audio edition containing original audio interviews with the author, Laurie Lee. A moving, never-before-published portrait of the landscape that shaped the life of Laurie Lee, the beloved author of Cider With Rosie 'Before I left the valley I thought everywhere was like this. Then I went away for 40 years and when I came back I realized that nowhere was like this.' Laurie Lee walked out of his childhood village one summer morning to travel the world, but he was always drawn back to his beloved Slad Valley, eventually returning to make it his home. In this portrait of his Cotswold home, Laurie Lee guides us through its landscapes, and shares memories of his village youth - from his favourite pub, The Woolpack, to winter skating on the pond, the church through the seasons, local legends, learning the violin and playing jazz records in the privy on a wind-up gramophone. Filled with wry humour and a love of place, Down in the Valley is a writer's tribute to the landscape that shaped him, and where he found peace. © Laurie Lee 2019. Original interviews and afterword © David Parker 2019

Laurie Lee (Author), David Sibley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Cider With Rosie

Brought to you by Penguin. The classic evocative tale of an idyllic childhood in the English countryside Cider with Rosie is a wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, Laurie Lee depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belongs to a now-distant past. 'Remains as fresh and full of joy and gratitude for youth and its sensations as when it first appeared. It sings in the memory' Sunday Times © Laurie Lee 1959 (P) Penguin Audio 2009

Laurie Lee (Author), Laurie Lee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Cider With Rosie

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Laurie Lee's lyrical autobiography of his childhood in a secluded Cotswold valley. Recorded on location at Westley Farm and the Woolpack Inn in Gloucestershire, Cider with Rosie stars Tim McInnerny as the narrator and Niamh Cusack as Mother. Halcyon days of flower-filled meadows, home-made wines, enthralling stories, and church outings were the essence of his childhood. But there was a harsher side too, leaving the security of his mother's bed, a death close to home, and days at the village school marred by a sadistic teacher, were all part of growing up. As was Rosie. And after his encounter with her under the haywain, Laurie Lee was 'never the same again'.

Laurie Lee (Author), Full Cast, Niamh Cusack, Tim Mcinnerny (Narrator)

Audiobook