As a young man Lee, despite carrying the burden of two girl's names, decided he had to go and fight fascists in Spain. He crossed the frontier on foot from France: Lee's first love was always poetry, though he was only moderately successful as a poet. Lee's poems had appeared in the Gloucester Citizen and the Birmingham Post, and in October 1934 his poem 'Life' won a prize from, and publication in, the Sunday Referee, a national paper. [7] [15] Another poem was published in Cyril Connolly's Horizon magazine in 1940 and his first volume of poems, The Sun My Monument, was published in 1944. This was followed by The Bloom of Candles (1947) and My Many-coated Man (1955). Several poems written in the early 1940s reflect the atmosphere of the war, but also capture the beauty of the English countryside. The poem "Twelfth Night" from My Many-coated Man was set for unaccompanied mixed choir by American composer Samuel Barber in 1968.

In 2003 the British Library acquired Lee's original manuscripts, letters and diaries. The collection includes two unknown plays and drafts of Cider with Rosie, which reveal that early titles for the book were Cider with Poppy, Cider with Daisy and The Abandoned Shade. [18] Final years [ edit ] Laurie Lee's grave within the village churchyard. The inscription reads "He lies in the valley he loved"

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First a look at the descriptive writing: Lee, along with the hundreds of other men, collected at Figueras Castle are transported south to Valencia. Just as their train arrives, German and Italian warplanes fly in from Majorca, and bomb the city. A Moment of War is the third and final book in Laurie Lee’s autobiographical account of his childhood and youth. I read the second, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning a couple of months ago but, as with this one, had read bits of it before while studying the Spanish Civil War and the role of foreign volunteers. Laurie Lee (1914–1997) – English poet and author", TomFolio Books, archived from the original on 26 October 2009 The front cover of my book, I think shows a picture of Teruel, but Lee's writing far outweighs the cover photo:

Was this then what I'd come for, and all my journey had meant - to smudge out the life of an unknown young man in a blur of panic which in no way could affect victory or defeat?"A great, heart-stopping narrative of one young Englishman's part in the war in Spain . . . crafted by a poet, stamping an indelible image of the boredom, random cruelty and stupidity of war' - Literary Review Laurence Edward Alan Lee, MBE (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire.

Ten days after my arrival at Figueras Castle...", (that is to say, roughly the 24th day of the journey) the whole bunch are pushed into a train, on their way to Albacete. The train took 24 hours to get to Valencia, that is to say, they'd arrived there on the 25th day of the journey.But the train doesn't leave until the following day, that is to say, the 26th day of the journey, after experiencing a bombarment by the German and Italian airplanes.That day, they arrive at Albacete, the training ground for the International Brigades. That ends the 26th day. a b Grove, Valerie (30 May 2014). "Fiercely unconventional and rampantly seductive: Lorna Wishart, the muse who made Laurie Lee". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 31 May 2017 . Retrieved 2 May 2017. Lee manages to covey intimately, the muddle, the mistakes, the hierarchy, the comeradary of men at war.The book describes how, in December 1937, Lee set out for Spain to fight for the Republican cause. He could not persuade anyone to help him and so eventually crossed the Pyrenees alone in a snowstorm. He then encountered Republican sympathisers who suspected him of being a Nationalist spy and imprisoned him. On the day scheduled for his execution a fortunate encounter led to his being released and joining the International Brigades. The book then recounts Lee's experiences as a Republican soldier in Figueres, Valencia, Tarazona, Madrid, Teruel and Barcelona. He left Spain in February 1938. Other works include A Rose for Winter, about a trip he made to Andalusia 15 years after the civil war; Two Women (1983), a story of Lee's courtship of and marriage to Kathy, daughter of Helen Garman; The Firstborn (1964), about the birth and childhood of their daughter Jessy (christened Jesse); and I Can't Stay Long (1975), a collection of occasional writing.