Recommendations from our site
“He’s got a bit of cash in his back pocket, and he effectively hitchhikes all the way to Galicia. He arrives there in 1935, then heads down to Zamora, then Toledo, and reaches the sea by September. He’s in Almuñécar in 1936, when the Spanish Civil War breaks out. A British destroyer arrives at Gibraltar, and he’s quite torn. He’s a Brit abroad and he is in danger, he should take the opportunity to go home. But he’s been searching for a story, for life on the road. He does go back to the UK, but then the rest of the book is about him trying to return to Spain—he makes his way back through down through France and through the Pyrenees, to fight. The backdrop to all this, of course, is the violin. It’s his tool, a simple instrument with which he makes his way financially. It’s so easy to carry, and everyone understands the language of music. They invite him to all these wonderful places.” Read more...
The best books on Long-Distance Journeys
Louis Hall, Travel Writer
“He’s a 20-year-old troubadour wandering through Spain, playing his fiddle for supper, enjoying the romance of it, and just in love with the freedom, with the road under his feet. And he just happens to walk into one of the most devastating civil wars of the 20th century. The sheer exuberance of youth comes over in the book, and his vivid description of the landscape—the prose feels as fresh and youthful as the day it was written. It’s like poetry to me.” Read more...
Gail Simmons, Travel Writer
“Reading Laurie Lee was suddenly a very different perspective on adventure, because he was just a normal young guy. He was not very tough. He wasn’t very fit. He didn’t claim to be trying to do anything extraordinary. He was just out in the world, living vividly and being curious and I loved that, mostly because it sounded like me. Ever since I read As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning I thought I wanted to go and do the trip myself.” Read more...
Alastair Humphreys, Travel Writer
“The best book in terms of engaging with this dreamy and poetic truth at the heart of Spain.” Read more...
Jason Webster, Novelist
