Cider with Rosie

"A beloved English classic that celebrates a bygone world and the innocence and wonder of childhood-more than six million copies sold worldwide. Laurie Lee was born in 1914 in Gloucestershire, then a remote corner of England. One of eight children, he was brought up by his capable mother: "I was perfectly content . . . and tumbled through the hand-to-mouth days, patched or dressed-up, scolded, admired, swept off my feet in sudden passions of kisses, or dumped forgotten among the unwashed pots." Lee's much-loved memoir opens when he was just a baby-younger than three years old-and ends as he becomes a young man experiencing his first kiss from Rosie. In between, on his journey from innocence to experience, Lee takes in the cadence of village and family life while suffering the awkward agonies of adolescence. He illuminates an era without electricity or telephones, an England on the cusp of the modern era, with a poignant lyricism that has captivated readers for decades. This Nonpareil edition includes a new introduction by award-winning author Simon Winchester"--