Collect The Life And Loves Of Laurie Lee Constructed By Valerie Grove Distributed As Volume

fascinating and painstakingly researched account of the life of poet and writer Laurie Lee, Born inin the rural Slad Valley in Gloucestershire immortalised in his most famous work, Cider with Rosie Laurie Lees life, as described by Valerie Grove, is as complex as it is contradictory.
Growing up in relative rural poverty, he eventually became a household name, dining with royalty and comfortable in his flat, pub and club in Chelsea, The book is full of details and anecdotes about this much loved poet such as the fact that his first job was as an errand boy with a firm of Chartered Accountants in Stroud.
It is difficult to think of a more unlikely career choice for someone like Laurie Lee, Thankfully, for him and his readers, this employment proved short lived and he was soon 'walking out one midsummer morning' with his violin on route to London.


Gregarious in public he often longed for privacy and solitude, As an epileptic and often tortured with various forms of illness, he was exempted all military service in the Second World War but went onto live into eighties dying inweeks after he had celebrated Tony Blairs victory in that years election.


One constant theme is the real struggle he found it to write and this from a man whose books sold in millions, Another theme is his dependence on women throughout his life including his loving Mother, a tortured relationship with a married mistress and his supremely tolerant wife, Laurie Lee was ultimately a private person and this book, published after his death, seeks to answer a number of questions unanswered in his life, His short spell in the Spanish civil war had a disproportionate influence on his life, even if he played the violin in Spain more than he handled a gun.
Lees life in many ways mirrors the remarkable changes of the twentieth century, Born into a valley still dominated by the horse, he ended his days having flown on Concord and when old age crept up on him he ordered ale from the pub garden with a mobile phone.
The influence of nature and creation on Lee is another theme explored, He charted the moon's course, recorded the times of sunsets, marked where the sun fell in his flat at the equinoxes and followed the seasons from his beloved Slad.


He travelled extensively during his life and later wrote pieces as a travel writer in places as diverse as Hong Kong and Lebanon, One remarkable fact about his life is that his second daughter and first granddaughter were born on the same day, in the same year, weighing the same weight.
When he died, photographs taken around the same time by residents showed two rainbows in the Slad Valley, A remarkable and inspiring end to a remarkable and inspiring life, Quite literally, a page turner, How many biographies have that effect Despite owning the book for nearly twenty years, it was hearing David Parker talking about his filming of Laurie Lee in the lates that made me go to the book and start reading.
. . What a life! What a man, Breathtaking research I envy Groves work ethic but too long, At times it felt like Grove was paraphrasing all of Lees letters, Strangely, I think that more time was devoted to his rockpooling on holiday than the death of his mother, Still, this was an insightful account of a fascinating man, Wellresearched, comprehensive and moving biography A great insight into Lee's life and what sort of person he was, Certainly different from, what I believe, most peoples view of him is,
However, I did find the book itself heavy going in places and, on occasions, a little diary like, "on this day he did this, on this day he did that",
That said, I found the book interesting and feel it is well worth reading if you are a fan of Laurie Lee, or love any of his works.
Millions of readers know and love him for his lyrical portraits of his life, from the moving and nostalgic tales of childhood and innocence found in the pages of Cider with Rosie, to the nomadic wanderings through Spain retold in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, to his dramatic experiences fighting Franco's forces in A Moment of War.
As a poet, playwright, broadcaster and writer, Laurie Lee created a legend around himself that would see him safely secured in the literary canon even within his own lifetime.
Yet, though he wrote exclusively about his own life, Lee never told the whole story, His readers know him as a man devoted to two women: his wife and his daughter, 'the firstborn', Among the pages of his published works there is little trace of the girls he left behind, He never identified in print the girl who inspired him to go to Spain, or the woman who supported him there, He never named the beautiful mistress he came home to, who was the great love of his young life and who led him into literary London, bore his child and broke his heart.
In The Life and Loves of Laurie Lee, acclaimed biographer

Valerie Grove delves into the letters and diaries he kept hidden from the world, building on her magisterial study of the charismatic poet to capture the essence of this romantic, elusive enigma and bring him to life once more.
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