Laurie Lee's original manuscripts of Cider with Rosie.
Laurie Lee wrote Cider with Rosie in 1957-58. He had been commissioned to write the book 10 years earlier by Hogarth Press (a publishing house founded by Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard). Eventually he was given £500 to allow him to drop his other work and focus on writing the book. But Lee didn’t really lock himself away in creative seclusion. Whilst working on Cider with Rosie he attended many parties thrown by the lively social set to which he belonged in London, visited friends around the country, took a trip to Ibiza, and dined with famous friends including the actress Peggy Ashcroft.
Laurie Lee later returned to the village of Slad where he had grown up, but his success as a writer had led him to a very different sort of life by the time he wrote Cider with Rosie. He became famous for his description of life in a backward corner of England just after the First World War. However, by the time he was ready to tell that story, he had made himself at home in a very different (and sometimes glamorous) world of international travel and bohemian parties.
More about Cider with Rosie
Walk with Laurie Lee: Go on an adventure with Cider with Rosie as you find out what happened next and go on a walk with Laurie Lee.
The Secret Life of Books: Find out more about the other books in the series.
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