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Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the village of Slad and went to the Central Boys' School, Stroud, Gloucestershire.〔Grove, Valerie (1999). ''Laurie Lee: The Well-Loved Stranger.'' New York: Viking.〕 His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of ''Cider with Rosie'' (1959), ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'' (1969) and ''A Moment of War'' (1991). The first volume recounts his childhood in the Slad Valley. The second deals with his leaving home for London and his first visit to Spain in 1935, and the third with his return to Spain in December 1937 to join the Republican International Brigades. ==Early life and works== Having been born in Stroud on 26th June 1914, Lawrence Edward Alan Lee moved with his family to the village of Slad in 1917, the move with which ''Cider with Rosie'' opens. After fighting in the First World War with the Royal West Kent Regiment, Lee's father Reginald Joseph Lee, did not return to the family. Lee and his brothers grew up loving their mother's (Annie Emily Light) family, the Lights, and intensely disliking the Lee side. His sister, Frances Nemariah Joan Lee died in September 1915 aged 3 when Lawrence Lee was a toddler. He had older siblings from his father's first marriage, including Dorothy, Phyllis and Marjorie. Brother Wilfred was born in 1913. At 12, Laurie went to the Central Boys' School in Stroud. In his notebook for 1928, when he was 14 he listed "Concert and Dance Appointments", for at this time he was in demand to play his violin at dances. He left the Central School at 15 to become an errand boy at a Chartered Accountants in Stroud. In 1931 he first found the Whiteway Colony, two miles from Slad, a colony founded by Tolstoyan anarchists. It gave him his first smattering of politicisation and was where he met the composer Benjamin Frankel and the "Cleo" who appears in ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning''.〔Valerie Grove, ''The Well Loved Stranger, a biography of Laurie Lee'' p.26〕 In 1933 he met Sophia Rogers, an "exotically pretty girl with dark curly hair" who had moved to Slad from Buenos Aires, an influence on Lee who said later in life that he only went to Spain because "a girl in Slad from Buenos Aires taught me a few words of Spanish." At 20 he worked as an office clerk and a builder's labourer, and lived in London for a year before leaving for Vigo, in northwest Spain, in the summer of 1935. From there he travelled across Spain as far as Almuñecar on the coast of Andalusia. Walking more often than not, he eked out a living by playing his violin.〔Laurie Lee - The well-loved stranger, by Valerie Grove〕 His first encounter with Spain is the subject of ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'' (1969). After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 Lee was picked up by a British destroyer from Gibraltar, collecting marooned British subjects on the southern Spanish coast. During this period, he met a woman who supported him financially. He started to study for an art degree but returned to Spain in 1937 as an International Brigade volunteer. His service in the Brigade was cut short by his epilepsy. These experiences were recounted in ''A Moment of War'' (1991), an austere memoir of his time as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). According to many biographical sources, Lee fought in the Republican army against Franco's Nationalists. After his death there were claims that Lee's involvement in the war was a fantasy; the claims were dismissed as "ludicrous" by his widow.〔("Laurie Lee Civil War Lies Claims 'Are Ludicrous'." ) (Highbeam Research. ) Originally published in The Birmingham Post, 1 January 1998.〕 Before 1951, Lee worked primarily as a journalist and as a scriptwriter. During World War II he made documentary films for the GPO Film Unit (1939–40) and the Crown Film Unit (1941–43). From 1944 to 1946 he worked as the Publications Editor for the Ministry of Information.〔Lyman, Rick. "(Poet Laurie Lee Dies at 82. )" ''The New Straits Times,'' 20 May 1997.〕 In 1950 Lee married Catherine Francesca Polge, whose father was Provençal and whose mother was one of the Garman sisters; they had one daughter, Jessie. From 1950 to 1951 he was caption writer-in-chief for the Festival of Britain, for which service he was awarded the decoration of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1952. The success of ''Cider with Rosie'' in 1959 allowed Lee to be a full-time independent writer. It continues to be one of the UK's most popular books, and is sometimes used as a set English literature text for schoolchildren. It captured images of village life from a bygone era of innocence and simplicity. Lee said it took him two years and was written three times. With the proceeds Lee was able to buy a cottage in Slad, the village of his childhood. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Laurie Lee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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