Cider with Rosie.

healthy I meant health

I read it so many years ago that I had almost forgotten it.

I did think the child was rather healthy and sturdy to cause so much angst to his mother regarding his healthy.
I got confused about the baby, and the fact that Rosie was in all the photographs with the family when they were young.
I did think Samantha Morton was very good (I think she occasionally met up with their father because there was obviously no-one else for her but him).

We were not far from the Slad Valley today but had no time to visit there.

Lottie - another one for me to re-read. I remember realising that it was one of the few books I'd read in which I had paid full attention to descriptions of the countryside instead of skimming them!

Just bought Cider with Rosie. Need to get off here and start reading it now!

If you like this also try reading "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" which follows on.
This was the only book I took on a 4week + Inter Rail trip back in the early '70s so I know it well!

Merlotgran - of course, thanks! She was even a red head and looked the same ago as Laurie.
Lona - that makes sense too.
I really must give myself the pleasure of re-reading the book.

Elrel I think the mother made visits to London to see her husband, but he didn't seem to visit the children!

The baby was a boy called Tony (I think) and the bouncy little girl would have been Rosie Burdock.

I wondered about that, Ginny,and decided father might have paid occasional visits. He must have been earning reasonably well and had some overnight leave. For a lot of the story I was wondering what happened to the baby born the day Laurie (almost) died. Then, in the 1918 celebrations, there was a bouncy little girl wearing a Peace headband whom her mother called Rosie. I guess that was the baby.

I struggled too and was confused about a number of things. Can someone tell me if Laurie was 4/5 years old and hadn't seen his father for 3 years , who was the father of the baby ?

So glad I'm not the only one to have struggled! There seemed to be gaps in the story, which I just put down to lapses in concentration - I get easily distracted these days!

I really enjoyed it but there is too much in the book to be condensed into an hour and a half.
The two grannies did not live with the family but lived together,one upstairs and one down.
The dead body was that of an ex-villager who had left the area and made good. When he returned he boasted of his success and was murdered by the villagers.
I was not at all perturbed by the size of the children .My father was born the same year as Laurie Lee and was very robust as a child despite being the son of a poor miner living in NE.

I fell asleep after the first half hour and then switched to Downton which also made me fall asleep!

I went to see Cider with Rosie at the theatre in the 80s and it is in my top three most boring plays. I think I will read it soon though because I don't believe the BBC would pay for a boring adaptation!

I think I will get the book as I used to love those sort of family meanderings when I was younger. Don't know why I've never read it.
I did think Samantha Morton (sp?) was very good.

Lol felice....your post has just popped up after I had composed mine.....I'm not the only one then!

It was certainly all very beautiful and atmospheric but dare I say it.....a tad tedious.
My other problem was that I just kept finding myself thinking that the actor playing the younger Laurie was just too darn sturdy looking for a child who was supposed to be so frail and a constant worry for his Mother. He was a delightful little soul to watch but just too healthy looking....silly I know but I found myself distracted by it.

It was my favourite book growing up, I found this adaptation very strange, if nothing else for the size of the children, for a poor country area just after WW1, they all looked like adverts for expensive yoghurts!!
Little frail Frances was running around looking not a bit consumptive, and the older Brother was smaller than Laurie and he was a pretty big 4/5 year old.
Not a patch on An Inspector Calls.

I missed the uncles, too.

There was also a TV adaptation in the eighties starring Juliet Stevenson as Annie.

Where were the uncles in the latest version?

I recorded then watched it and whilst the scenery was beautiful and very atmospheric I found it all a bit slow and to be honest got bored before the end and fast forwarded it. Timothy Spall was the narrator and I think he overdid the slow country accent - he almost sent me to sleep. I preferred the 1971 version too bohemian.

There was a BBC production of Cider With Rosie, shown in 1971, and starring Rosemary Leach, which IMO is a better version that the one shown on Sunday.

Oh do read the book Lona - it is a joy!