Will I love As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning?

How can a book about a lad who walks out of the Cotswolds to be a grunt worker in London then a tramp-musician in Spain be so dark, so luminous?

It's primarily the language; Lee is really a poet and poets tend to write the most lyrical novels. This memoir/travelogue explores all the filth, brutality and beauty of pre-Civil War Spain. The ugliness can get pretty ugly at times, but is again and again redeemed by the sheer poetry of a sunrise or a walk in the hills. How come I never heard of Lee before? He is truly special.… show more.

Another book about youthful innocence and optimism.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning is the story of Laurie Lee leaving England in 1935 on a boat for Spain with just a violin and a blanket and few possessions.

He busks his way around Spain heading south to Andalucía, playing in cafes and town squares for a few coins.

Life in Spain was poor and primitive and the country was on the verge of civil war but his cheery demeanour was always met with warmth and humanity. It’s a life-affirming story.

Still in his teens and a young poet in the making, Lee set out in the 1930s from his village in the rural west of England, first to walk to London and then to take a boat to Spain. Landing with no return ticket and little knowledge of where he was, he walked across the country earning his keep by playing his violin on the streets. His story captures the romance of Spain, plus its drama and tensions of the time.