" 'It's cider,' she said. 'You ain't to drink it though. Not much of it, any rate.' Huge and squat, the jar lay on the grass like an unexploded bomb. We lifted it up, unscrewed the stopper, and smelt the whiff of fermented apples. I held the jar to my mouth and rolled my eyes sideways, like a beast at a water-hole. 'Go on,' said Rosie. I took a deep breath...
"Never to be forgotten, that first long secret drink of golden fire, juice of those valleys and of that time, wine of the old orchards, of russet summer, of plump red apples, and Rosie's burning cheeks. Never to be forgotten, or tasted ever again..."
(Cider with Rosie, 1959)
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"... the death of Hannah and Joseph Brown, grown feeble and infirm, separated by well-meaning authorities in the Workhouse because they can no longer take care of themselves, and who quickly die of old age and fright, because they have never been apart before."
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Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE, 1914 - 1997, English poet, novelist, screenwriter.
I must get this book out and read it again. We studied it at school when I was 11 and all I can remember is the dreary voice of the nun who taught English. I cannot recall a thing about the book; the memory is one long yawn. Such a shame!
ReplyDeleteI was was introduced to Laurie Lee by one of my readers (not a dreary-voiced nun) and I just like the way he (Lee) writes. He had me at "sideways like a beast..." :)
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