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Laurie Lee 100

±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire recreated author Laurie Lee's walk from Stroud to Spain - Slad Valley to Almuñécar. #LaurieLee100

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  • ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire wins prestigious award

    ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire has won a major international award for our documentary on Laurie Lee.

    The New York Radio Festivals awarded us "silver" for our recreation of Laurie Lee's walk from Slad to Almuñécar.

    We recreated the walk that Laurie Lee made from Stroud to the South Coast of Spain in his book “As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning”.   He set off on his journey in 1935 when he was just 19 from the Slad Valley, arriving eighteen months later in Almuñécar during the Spanish civil war.

    The walk took him across Salisbury Plain, down to Southampton where he began busking for a living, then up to London where he worked as a labourer.  He then travelled by sea and walked on foot through Spain until he settled on the South Coast.

    Click to listen to the award winning documentary.

  • ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire recreated Laurie Lee's walk from Stroud to Spain...

    Chris Baxter has recreated Laurie Lee's epic journey from Slad to Almuñécar - to celebrate his centenary.  Here you can listen to the walk in stages...



    .  Chris meets local poet Adam Horovitz on Swift's Hill overlooking the Slad Valley.

    .  Laurie's daughter Jessie Lee chats to Chris about why Slad was so special to him.

    .  Botanist Tim Wilkins explains that as the MOD still occupies Salisbury Plain, the wildflowers Laurie encountered exist to this day.

    .  Where Laurie was disappointed not to see the sea!  Instead he took up busking for a living.  Gloucestershire fiddle player Paul Burgess tries his luck!

    .  Laurie finally saw the true beauty of the sea, and indeed described Worthing as "a kind of Chelteham-on-Sea".

    .  You can hear about where Laurie worked as a laborer in London, working on the flats at Exeter House.

    . Chris Baxter recreates the walk from Slad through to Almuñécar in Spain.

  • Chris Baxter's Outside Broadcast from Spain..

    View pictures of ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire broadcasting from Spain to celebrate Laurie Lee's centenary.  This was the culmination of Chris Baxter retracing the great man's steps from his home in Slad to Almuñécar.  You can view them .


  • ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire's literacy project...

    As part of Laurie Lee's centenary, ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire used his words to inspire others.  

    We followed two Gloucestershire residents - 19 year old Dominic Manley and 36 year old Michelle Berwick.  They learnt extracts of Laurie Lee's work and performed them in front of a live audience which is of course was a huge step for them.

    Dominic enrolled in the Gloucestershire College Adult Literacy course when he realised his poor spelling and writing was holding him back at work.

    Michelle’s education was disrupted when she got into an abusive relationship. While still a teenager, she had two children who were then taken into care. The trauma of losing her children lead her into years of alcohol and drug abuse. She is now clean and back in touch with her children. She is desperate to turn her life around and get a job in beauty – she needed the literacy qualification to get back into work.

    You can hear the first time we met Dom .

    You can hear the first time we met Michelle .    

    The second time we met Dom and Michelle – two weeks to go until they perform their extract in front of a live audience.  Listen .

    Mark Cummings introduces Dominic giving his performance at the Laurie event in Slad.  Listen .

    Mark Cummings introduces Michelle giving her performance at the Laurie event in Slad.  Listen .

    Dominic and Michelle finally perform at Laurie's old primary school in Slad .

  • ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire walks out...

    To celebrate Laurie Lee's anniversary, we've sent our presenters out and about in Gloucestershire to tell you about their favourite place in the County and where they would walk out from...


    talks about her favourite place, Cleeve Hill. 

     loves watching cricket at Cheltenham College.

    takes you on a tour of May Hill.

    shows you Saul Junction.

    takes you to his favourite spot - Swift's Hill.

  • Laurie Lee's Stroud...

    Laurie Lee was born in Stroud and had great affection for the town.  It's where he penned some of his most famous works.  We send our reporter Jo Durrant to Stroud to visit some of the places that Laurie frequented...


    .  This is where Laurie Lee used to write in the 1950s.

    .  When Laurie Lee left the former Central School in Stroud in 1930 he went to work for Randall and Payne. The firm was based in Stroud at that time although as since moved to Shurdington.

    .  What were Laurie Lee’s secondary school days like? And what sort of pupil was he?  He attended what was the Central School in Stroud, now part of Marling School.

    .  Another place that was very important to him, just a few miles from Stroud.

  • Putting Slad on the map...

    To mark the 100th anniversary of author Laurie Lee’s birthday on the 26th June 2014, ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire brought you comprehensive coverage of his centenary with a special range of programmes, features and guests.  We explored how a young lad from Slad became an internationally renowned writer with students around the World still studying his books to this day. 

    We followed a group of adults who've decided to go back to school to improve their literacy skills.  As part of our literacy project, we brought Laurie Lee's work to a whole new audience.  

    Of course we also heard from the great man himself.  In his final radio interview, just before he died in 1997, he spoke to ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire's Mark Hurrell about the inspiration for "Cider With Rosie", his exploits during the Spanish Civil War and his love for the countryside around his beloved home village in Slad.  Click to hear the full interview.

  • As I Walked Out...

    One of the highlights of our coverage was recreating the walk that Laurie Lee made from Stroud to the South Coast of Spain in his book “As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning”.   He set off on his journey in 1935 when he was just 19 from the Slad Valley, arriving eighteen months later in Almuñécar during the Spanish civil war.

    The walk took him across Salisbury Plain, down to Southampton where he began busking for a living, then up to London where he worked as a labourer.  He then travelled by sea and walked on foot through Spain until he settled on the South Coast.

    This culminated on Laurie Lee’s birthday when Mark Cummings presented his show live from the Woolpack pub in Slad between 6-9 in the morning, then Chris Baxter took over to present his show live from Almuñécar in Spain between 9-12.

    Chris Baxter visited some of the key places along the walk to bring you a fascinating insight into Laurie's journey.  You can see where Laurie set off from .

  • Laurie's last radio interview...

    Laurie Lee's last radio interview was conducted by ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire's Mark Hurrell and is a fascinating insight into his life.  He remembers his early years in Slad, his epic journey on foot to Spain and how he developed his distinctive writing style.

    Here, Mark Hurrell explains more about meeting and recording the great man.

    "I remember well my first meeting Laurie. We approached his agent and asked if he would talk to me about his early days in Slad. Eventually the answer came back saying that yes Laurie would meet me but would only agree to an initial chat in "The Woolpack" in the village.

    When I met him I realised that he was quite a shy man and needed to get to know me before he was prepared to be interviewed. Over a few weeks I regularly turned up at the pub for a pint (or two) to talk about his life etc: but pretty quickly we moved onto other things rather than the usual - familiar ground that an interviewer would expect. 

    Eventually he decided that he was ready for the interview. This followed a lovely lunch at his house cooked by Kathy and we sat in his lounge with a couple of microphones and some new piece of ±«Óătv kit - a DAT (Digital Audio Tape) machine, very old fashioned now I think! Once we got past the initial "easy " questions about what he'd had for breakfast that morning and the price of fish we set to it. I think I returned with well over an hour of material most of which you'll hear in this programme. 

    Very little ended up "on the cutting room floor". Inevitably I was struck by his passion for his home area and a sense of recognition of what he had achieved - albeit - he would argue - from fairly humble beginnings. A true gentleman and a talented author."

    Hear the interview

    You can hear Mark Hurrell's full interview with Laurie Lee by clicking .

  • 19 year old follows in Laurie's footsteps...

    Although ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire recreated many parts of Laurie Lee's walk in England, we discovered that a 19 year old girl walked the entire length of his route in Spain!  Hannah Hughes packed up her rucksack in March and  "couch surfed" her way through Spain.

    She arrived in the Spanish town where Laurie settled on the 25th June 2014.  One thing is for sure, she made her Grandmother in Moreton-in-Marsh very proud!

    To read about her amazing journey, click .

  • Why Laurie is loved in Spain...

    Laurie Lee is a household name in the Spanish town of Almuñécar.  It's where he settled at the end of his book "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" before being rescued at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

    In the book he refers to Almuñécar simply as "Castillo" to protect those he identifies.  There is a statue in the town and on the 26th June they will be celebrating his anniversary with a small ceremony.  ±«Óătv Radio Gloucestershire will be there broadcasting live.  Almuñécar head of Cultural Events Juan Bolivar explained to us why they are celebrating Laurie Lee's 100th Anniversary in Spain.  You can hear the interview .

  • The Laurie Lee Wildlife Way...

    On the 26th June 2014, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust opened the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way, a six mile circular walk around the Slad Valley, the setting for Laurie Lee’s evocative novel Cider with Rosie. 

    The circular walk takes in four of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s beautiful nature reserves (including Laurie Lee Wood which opened last year) includes 10 new ‘poetry posts’ featuring poems by Lee inspired by the Gloucestershire landscape.

    The poetry trail consists of 10 larch posts, each over five feet tall, launched on the centenary of Laurie Lee’s birth. Musician and author, Cerys Matthews, who has written the forward for the new edition of Cider with Rosie, will unveil the poetry posts and launch the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way.  

    To find out more about Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, click .

  • Sleeping Rough...

    One of the difficulties Laurie Lee faced on his epic walk, was where to sleep!  Especially in the early part of his journey, he was often too tired to pitch his tent and would fall asleep in a ditch under the stars.  


    Did he actually sleep?  Did the strange sounds in the middle of the night scare him?  Chris Baxter decided to leave his wife and children behind for a night to experience what it would have been like.  You can hear how he got on and watch his adventures .

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