‘Remains as fresh and full of joy and gratitude for youth and its sensations as when it first appeared. It sings in the memory.’ Sunday Times
Laurie Lee described this, his best-loved and best-known book, as ‘a recollection of early boyhood’, adding the acknowledgement that ‘some facts may have been distorted by time’. Whether or not they have, as one critic put it, ‘Cider with Rosie seems true as long as you’re reading it – and that’s the most important thing.’
Lee writes ecstatically of going blackberrying in summer, playing in the fields when the grass was ‘June high’, skating and carol singing in icy Christmas weather when it hurt to breathe and the air was ‘like needles’. Illustrated by John Ward, Cider with Rosie is not just a rosy picture of a rural past, but a magical evocation of growing up in a lost world that rings emotionally true.
With fewer than 60 copies remaining of our limited-edition hardback of this dazzling little book, we hope you will enjoy the following extract and perhaps be tempted to add Laurie Lee’s evocative memoir to your Slightly Foxed collection before it sells out.
With best wishes, as ever, from the SF staff
Jess, Isabel, Rebecca, Izzy & Jennie
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