Cider with Rosie - adaptedfrom the book by Laurie Lee with magical fiddle tunes by Paul Burgess - BBC Radio 4 FM 2010-05-08 & 09 Hi-MD SP master

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Laurie Lee was born in the village of Slad, near Stroud, Gloucestershire. Abandoned by his father when he was 3, Lee was educated at the local village school and at Stroud, leaving when he was 15. In 1934, he went to London to seek his fortune and then continued on to Spain. There he travelled on foot, playing his fiddle to earn his keep, before being caught up later in the Spanish Civil War. These youthful adventures provided the material for his celebrated autobiographical trilogy, Cider with Rosie (1959), As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991).
Returning to London, he worked for the Ministry of Information during World War 2 and published a collection of poems, The Sun My Monument, in 1944. This was followed by The Bloom of Candles (1947) and My Many-Coated Man (1955).

Lee's poems are generally about the English countryside and proved only reasonably successful. Cider with Rosie, on the other hand, was an immediate best-seller, reaching a wide public with its images of village life from a bygone era of innocence and simplicity. Its success was such that Lee could buy his childhood home, where he died. He was buried in the local churchyard.

The identity of Rosie, the eponymous heroine of Lee's memoir, remained a secret for 25 years after publication of the book. It was then revealed that she was Lee's cousin by marriage, Rose Buckland.

He must have told the story of how he chose the title for the first book in his autobiographical trilogy hundreds of time and yet when Chris Vacher from BBC Points West visited Laurie Lee in his Gloucestershire home in November 1984, it was like he was telling the story for the very first time.


"Cider with Rosie" in paperback
'Cider with Rosie', written in 1959, is probably Laurie Lee's most celebrated work, having been a favoured text for 'O' Level English exams and one which continues to attract thousands of readers the world over, dealing, as it does, with childhood experiences and the awkwardness of growing up.

Born in the same month as the outbreak of World War One - June 1914 - Laurie Lee's own tumultuous baptism into adulthood included a spell fighting in the Spanish Civil War – an experience that later he would write about in his personal memoirs and one that formed the basis of the final book in his trilogy, 'A Moment of War'.

It would have been a very different world from the one he occupied in the peaceful Slad valley, growing up with Rosie – and his family, with the "voices, accents, scents, sounds… smell of the cottage… and the village…" all around him.

Telling a good story
During World War Two, Lee wrote poetry and plays and became a documentary filmmaker – a clue perhaps as to why he seems so relaxed in front of the cameras.

But most commentators agree, Laurie Lee and Gloucestershire – and Slad in particular – are inseparable – and the West Country is a better place for such a meeting of mind and physical being.


The Woolpack, Slad
Naturally, such a reputation for telling a good story led to a huge amount of prominence for the Gloucestershire writer, and up until his death in May 1997, hundreds of people would come to Slad in the hope of meeting the man who captured a moment and shared it so generously with the rest of the world.

When so many other writers choose to leave behind their roots and head for the smoke of the big city, it is always heartening to hear of such a person who opts to stay put in the place that inspired their ability.

Laurie Lee was such a man – and because he chose to maintain his association with the Slad valley, 'Cider with Rosie' has more genuine appeal – another reason for it remaining such a popular piece of writing today.

I split this into scene changes for tracking where they seemed to naturally fall - not easy without the script!

CD 1

Tim McInnerny plays Laurie and Niamh Cusack his mother, in this production recorded on location in and around the Slad valley. In the first of two episodes dramatised by Nick Darke, the Lee family arrive in their new home.

01 Intro/Scene 1
02 Scene 2
03 Scene 3
04 Scene 4
05 Scene 5
06 Scene 6
07 Outro

Laurie........Tim McInnerny
Mother.......Niamh Cusack
Young Loll..Sunny Leworthy
Music by Paul Burgess

With Jennifer Compton, Paul Currier, Briony Fforde, Daniel Clifford, Lisa Kay, Laura Strachan, Jed Blacklock, David Goodland, Constance Chapman, Val Lorraine, Chris Grimes, June Barrie, James Lawton, Pupils of Rodborough Primary School.

Directed by Viv Beeby and Jeremy Howe



CD 2

In the second of two episodes dramatised by Nick Darke, young Loll experiences his first taste of the adult world.

01 Intro/
02 Scene 1
03 Scene 2
04 Scene 3
05 Scene 4
06 Scene 5
07 Scene 6
08 Scene 7
09 Scene 8
10 Scene 9
11 Scene 10
12 Scene 11
13 Scene 12
14 Scene 13
15 Outro


Laurie.................Tim McInnerny
Mother................Niamh Cusack
Young Loll...........Sunny Leworthy
Rosie..................Emily Parrish
Music by Paul Burgess

with Jennifer Compton, Paul Currier, Lisa Kay, Briony Fforde, Daniel Clifford, Jed Blacklock, David Goodland, Bill Wallis, Paul Dodgson, June Barrie, Chris Grimes, Megan Melish, Laura Beckett, Luke Glastonbury-Cole, Buster Reece, Alex Smith, Leanne French, Villagers of Slad and Rodborough.

Directed by Viv Beeby and Jeremy Howe