Laurie Lee interview - Thames Television - 1975 

I met Laurie Lee in the mid 1980s in a pub in Slad. It was an entirely unexpected encounter and I was in awe of this wonderfully poetic author who I’d admired since a teenager.

His books Cider With Rosie and As I Went Out One Midsummer Morning are marvellous and two of the only books I’ve reread countless times.

What a gentle, intelligent and thought provoking conversation. Alas they do not make tv like this any more...................... another world like Lee's Slad Vally............ another way of life saved for all time for those who wish to glimpse through the pages of his marvellous book........... What a gift?

Laurie Lee is, in my opinion, the best English writer on Spanish Andalusian culture.

This guy is great, a lover of life. There is no better poem than "April Rise" (in my opinion)

Great interview, Laurie didn't do too many so this is a real treat. Thanks.

Thank you Laurie for all your beautiful works.

Loved this man so much I named my son after him.

Love and miss the man, the writer, the voice!

Love his voice and his descriptive pros. My great grandmother was from the same area in Gloucestershire. He left behind a little piece of that world that no one remembers. But will be forever be frozen in time like a fly in amber.

An interview full of wit and wonder. Totally enchanting!

Wonderful interview. Thanks for sharing this!

So grateful for this upload. I have never heard him speak and this interview was insightful, charming, funny, so open. A British great. The interviewer was also lovely

Read Cider with Rosie at school and have been fascinated ever since. Captured a moment never to be seen again. Been to Slad, saw his house and grave - wish we'd met.

All you old folks. I love Laurie Lee and am only 23.

I recall reading " As I Walk out one Midsummer Morning" in English class in 1982. I had idea he wrote "Rosie with Cider". I had a similar " finding my self" moment in the summer of 1989 as I ventured out on my own across Canada from Wales by foot bike and Greyhound!

Similarly to Laurie Lee, I always think that everybody should write down the interesting things they've lived through or learnt. Once they die that experience is lost forever I like the way he gently turns the question back on the interviewer and asks her what does *she* think paradise is?

His travel writings are superb.

Cider with rosie is my favourite book I would love to go to slad and his cottage to see what it's like now and to see where he is buried along side his mother x

Wonderful interviewer, this woman.

Great writer and so interesting

RIP Mavis Nicolson. Laurie Lee to my ears also sounds Welsh.

I'm named after Laurie Lee! (My middle name is Leon) This is really interesting to know about my namesake. I've never really known much about him and am going to read Cider with Rosie for the first time.

He sound welsh

Mavis is certainly a radiant Welsh beauty. If I had a time machine I'd go back to 1975 and try and make her blush.

A bit of a flirt going on there I think. Twinkle in the eye. Charming.

He must have changed his accent a lot

He sounds vaguely Welsh.

Bit of lady's man is Mr Lee. Playboy of Weston Super Mare.

Great writer in the sense he had a great way with words but I still think certainly his "walking out" and civil war books were at least partly made up. If you believe the first he landed in Vigo with just one sentence of Spanish yet was speaking it fluently within a few weeks....quite a bit of bs tbh