In an interview on The Wonder of Spain

And was the only non-Spaniard on your list open to it? This is Laurie Lee’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.

Yes, I think so. I chose him because I felt, of the various foreigners who come to Spain and engage with Spain, his is the best book in terms of engaging with this dreamy and poetic truth at the heart of Spain. Lee really expresses that very well.

The book is set in the 1930s so the timing is interesting. This is the second book in his trilogy of memoirs. His first is Cider with Rosie about his childhood, then this book and finally, A Moment of War. In this one he leaves his home in the Cotswolds in England and decides to go to Spain. He says the reason he did that is because he knew how to ask for a glass of water in Spanish! It was the only language he knew, so he jumped on a boat and came to Spain.

He just about made ends meet by playing the fiddle. He was there for a few years and left just as the Civil War was breaking out. So he was there at an extraordinary time. Interestingly, in the book this is only ever hinted at and I think it is all the more powerful for that, because you know what is happening and what is going to happen. And then he comes back and fights against Franco, which is the story he tells in his next book.