Penguin 2014. Paperback, 224 pp.
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 . . .