... It was Laurie Lee that gave me the phrase that I use when teaching writing about painting a picture with words, and In Cider with Rosie, he excells in the art.
It is hard to believe that time has passed so quickly. Laurie Lee was born in 1914 and died in 1997. Cider with Rosie is autobiographical ... Read review
Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, this memoir is about ... more
the authors childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. It also depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belongs to a now-distant past.
Advantages: Familiar though stunning walk through nostalgia Disadvantages: None.
...picture with words, and In Cider with Rosie, he excells in the art.
It is hard to believe that time has passed so quickly. Laurie Lee was born in 1914 and died in 1997. Cider with Rosie is autobiographical and tells of the authors years growing up and was published in 1959, when I was seven years old, and when I look through the way that he describes life in Rural Gloucester, I sometimes feel I am glimpsing little snatches from my ... ...the same, as his words bring that life alive and his descriptive ability nurtures the reader through parts of his life that others may have described as harsh reality. However, Laurie does not do this.
His mother brought up the family on her own, and against a backdrop of poverty, a richness of depth and explanation comes into Laurie Lee's work. It is like brushstrokes on a canvas, as adjective after adjective paint pictures of people, ... more
Laurie Lee is one of my favourite Authors, and this book demonstrates to a certain extent why. As a writer, I am expected to describe in such a way as to convey to readers the reality. I succeed, although not half as well as Laurie Lee with his work. It was Laurie Lee that gave me the phrase that I use when teaching writing about painting a picture with words, and In Cider with Rosie, he excells in the art.
It is hard to believe that time has passed so quickly. Laurie Lee was born in 1914 and died in 1997. Cider with Rosie is autobiographical and tells of the authors years growing up and was published in 1959, when I was seven years old, and when I look through the way that he describes life in Rural Gloucester, I sometimes feel I am glimpsing little snatches from my own life and many readers of my age must feel the same, as his words bring that life alive and his descriptive ability nurtures the reader through parts of his life that others may have described as harsh reality. However, Laurie does not do this.
His mother brought up the family on her own, and against a backdrop of poverty, a richness of depth and explanation comes into Laurie Lee's work. It is like brushstrokes on a canvas, as adjective after adjective paint pictures of people, of how they lived, thought, co-existed, and discovered life in Rural England in the earlier part of the last century.
Each person in his book becomes a character in their own right. No-one lacks importance, and each of these individuals makes the story whole and complete.
What is the most astounding about this book is that it is based on memory but a memory that is finely tuned to detail. My memory is certainly not as colourful as Laurie Lee's and I admire his ability to colour the canvas with every possible shade and hue, making his work more than just black and white. I don't know another way to explain this, but one of the biggest gifts that Laurie Lee gives us with this book is capturing a time and a place and making it become real.
It is fascinating to watch Laurie Lee develop as a child, and to see the world in which he lived brought to life from a boy's point of view. These were hard times, times when a woman alone would have found the heartbreak of bringing up a family hard enough, though Laurie describes his life as positive, even though they lived in overcrowded accommodation, and his mother was not just bringing up one family, but in fact also the children of her second husband, who worked away. He describes a time in life when it was not at all unusual for children to die. These were hard and harsh times, and it is difficult to imagine a life without motor vehicles, but instead with horses and carts, but here Lee's work comes into its own because as a writer, his ability to describe and bring to life past events is astounding.
Let me give you a small example of his descriptive ability. Imagine you are a child, so small to the world, so fragile as to have thoughts such as these.
"The June grass, amongst which I stood, was taller than I was, and I wept. I had never been so close to grass before. It towered above me and all around me, each blade tattooed with tiger-skins of sunlight. It was knife-edged, dark, and a wicked green, thick as a forest and alive with grasshoppers that chirped and chattered and leapt though the air like monkeys."
I wish that my memory of youth was a clear as Laurie Lee's obviously was when he wrote this book, adding colour, texture and form to the mystery of growing up, and the surroundings in which his childhood passed, culminating in first romance with the mysterious Rosie.
This is a book well worth reading for the craftsmanship of words. For me, Laurie Lee was a legend in his own time. His popularity soared and it is sad that schools use this book in literature examinations because in a way, text books tend to alienate readers away from the classics that they are force fed as children.
This is a book to read through an adults eyes without those kind of perceptions, and when read openly and because you want to take a glimpse into part of England's past, it becomes a delight.
It is the story of life, a story of a small country kitchen filled with noises, and people who learned how to live in harmony with each other, each leaving space for the other to develop their own character and personality. I admire greatly the way in which the writer has brought his life to the reader, as if in painting form, and has coloured the readers life with a joyful revival of his youth, rather than a sad rendition of being poor which is the course that many other writers have taken, and have failed in miserably.
He describes his whole household as being "each like separate notes on a scale", and the balance with which he writes his story is amazing.
If you have read this at school, forget the misconceptions that this is a school project. Read it again, and see why Laurie Lee is upheld as such a good writer. See it from an adult's viewpoint and enjoy.
At less than £10 from Amazon, this is yet another classic to add to your bookshelf.
I purchased Cider with Rosie as part of an eight book set from my daughter’s school book club, and although It was not the first of the books that I chose to read, it was a light and interesting insight into the life of families at the end of World War I.
~The Story~
Cider with Rosie is an autobiography published in 1959 by Laurie Lee who was born in 1914 in Gloucestershire. His mother brought the large family up on her own after his father failed ... ...to make a career for himself). His father had been married before and had 5 living children from 8 of which 4 lived at home, these added to the 3 living children of 4 that his father had with his second wife Laurie’s mother led to tight cramped living arrangements and little finances. Setting up home near Stroud, his mother did her best to keep everyone together and although obviously poor, Laurie Lee does not reflect to much on this hardship. He ...
rachelkanga 09.03.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
"Cider with Rosie" has to be one of my most memorable, poignant and haunting reads. I discovered it when I was 16 in an English class whilst learning about descriptive writing and use of imagery. I didn't have to read it, I was just shown an example of his work, but it lured me in hook line and sinker and I couldn't put the book down.
The book is an evocative memoir of his childhood growing up in a Cotswold village. He captures the time and the ... ...in such a manner that conveys reality - he paints a picture with his words and he excels in this art. I think the opening paragraph is simply magical,
"I was set down from the carrier's cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began. The June grass, amongst which I stood, was taller than I was, and I wept. I had never been so close to grass before. It towered above me and all around me, each ...
twingkelingstar 29.06.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
Advantages: Gloriously rich and lyrical. Disadvantages: none at all.
...the twentieth century, Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie filled me with nostalgia. I grew up in the Cotswolds, and Lee descriptions of the beautiful Slad valley area captured my heart and my imagination.
Lee's mother had been abandonned with a horde of children - some her own and some from her husbad's first marriage. Setting up home in a cottage near Stroud, she does her best to keep everyone together. Mrs Lee is an eccentric woman, and Laurie's childhood ... ...poor, Lee does not reflect on the hardhip too much.
Lee tells the tale of his boyhood through a series of specific and general accounts - we see the two elderly ladies who live nearby, one subsisting on tea, the other making wine. We see school outings, working life, illness and summer games. We meet Rosie and travel with Lee into early sexual exploits and the first stirrings of adulthood. This is a beautiful text, not fast or pacy but enchanting ...
Bryn_Pearson 03.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
This is a book which I feel everybody should read. Simply put it's a classic. It follows the early life of Laurie Lee. The book is set in England's Cotswolds in the late 1910's to the early thirties. It gives us an idea of what life was like back then. It wasn't always good but it wasn't always bad either. Even thought it is a biography, it isn't just about the author. It's about the people and times that were going on around him. In a way you could ... ...Ashes. Where the author uses the same style to tell his story. But I love this book much more. The language throughout this book is wonderful. It has an almost dream like quality to it.
If you want a good read, buy this book. Trust me, you might like it. ...
Mark75 23.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
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Advantages: A few funny and moving parts. Not many, but some. Disadvantages: Dull, too long, not a patch on the original.
Lee and “cider with Rosie” compared to “as I walked out one midsummer morning”; or Roald Dahl’s “boy” to the sequel “going solo”).
Most people who read Tis do so because they loved its prequel, and find it hard to believe that any follow up could be in any way a poor read after this amazing book – that is certainly why I read it. I feel let down by the author now and wish I had taken the advice I was given to leave Tis alone. I struggled to finish it, finding it overall to be dull, far too long and completely undeserving of a bestseller rank. Stick to Angela’s Ashes and avoid this book at all costs! ...
Product Information for "Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee" »
Product details
Author
Laurie Lee
Title
Cider with Rosie
Genre
Biography
Type
Non-Fiction
ISBN
0140016821; 0701201576
Manufacturer's product description
Laurie Lee's evocative account of childhood in the sleepy Gloucestershire village of Slad retains its atmosphere of innocence in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast production, dramatised on radio for the first time. Recorded on location in Gloucestershire, it stars Niamh Cusack as Laurie s mother and Tim McInnerney as Laurie. This new dramatisation of Lee's 1959 classic is bursting with bustle and charm. - ("The Times")
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