Bookshelf photo
  Home Meetings Lists Events Archive About  

Review September 2020

 As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee.

First Published: 1969

Internet entries:



As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

by Laurie Lee

Set in the 1930’s, “As I Went Out One Midsummer Morning” is a description of the young Laurie Lee’s life after leaving home and journeying on foot to London. He works on a building site, and then on an impulse, walks through Spain to the south coast where he is rescued by an English naval fleet at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

Although the “story” is simple everyone felt that the book needed to be read slowly to appreciate the wonderful descriptions of the characters he met and the places he visited. As Sue said every word was worth its place. We thought his language created different atmospheres, was humorous and depicted the 1930’s affectionately, but unsentimentally, as the end of an era that stretched in Spain at least, from the Middle Ages. We all had our favourite phrases, and characters from the book. We were struck by the generosity of the very poverty- stricken villagers towards the author.

The boy himself, although sometimes silly (why didn’t he wear his hat?) was very likeable. He was confident, showed no self-pity, resilient and determined to earn his own living. At least one of us wished we had had the pluck to follow in his footsteps. Anne would have liked to hear him play and was astounded that his violin lasted so long. We were interested in the description of the start of the Civil War as most of us knew very little about it. Some felt the burning of the church was shocking. The book showed the boy’s growing empathy with the Spanish people and so his return to Spain was not unexpected.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the book and planned to read some of his other writings. "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" is the central work of a trilogy which starts with "Cider with Rosie" and finishes with "A Moment of War".

The title: "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" is the first line of the Gloucestershire folk song "The Banks of Sweet Primroses".

CMC, 14 Sep 2020

AABC Star rating: 4.6


Awards: