This afternoon I had a lovely surprise, while driving home from a business meeting, as Radio 4's Open Country broadcast their visit to Slad. It was a lovely programme so I thought I would share the listen again link, which also has some lovely photographs.
Click here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039d4bq
And as I have it on my radar to try and add some of our older reviews to this blog, here is our review from our meeting back in August 2011.
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee - August 2011
Our discussion began with total agreement that this was a
very enjoyable book that was so beautifully written it was poetry.
Though almost in living memory the world of Laurie Lee was
so different to our own and was written at a time when rural life was changing.
Most striking was the references to noise: it seems that from arriving in a silent place the
noise grew as Laurie did.
The prose masks a hard life and did not shock or horrify as
other tales of the time could (and would have done). Stories of bringing up
other people’s children alone, murder, dying in the workhouse, suicide, hunger,
cold, terrible accident are all presented, with an underlying beauty, by a poet
with a rose tinted childhood memory. In fact despite the harsh reality the
stories make you laugh out loud - often.
We drew alignment to our last book – Three Cups of Tea by
Greg Mortenson – in the fact that Laurie Lee is writing from memory about
personal experience and passion. Events were muddled in time and embellished as
he does, or would wish to, remember things.
Our discussion (far lengthier than our notes here
suggest) let on to how life in Ashendon would have been during Laurie Lee's childhood, when many of the houses were tiny
cottages with large families and farm work was the main employment. Much like
Slad we thought, so we ended our chat with an idea that we should perhaps have a Book
Group outing to Slad.
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