Laurie Lee · 1969 · overland

Laurie Lee's memoir of leaving his Cotswold village at nineteen, in the summer of 1934, to walk to London and then across Spain with a violin and little else. Busking for his bread, he tramps the Castilian plateau through Madrid and Toledo to the southern coast, where he is caught up in the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and taken off by the Royal Navy.

1. 1
   Slad, Gloucestershire

   One midsummer morning the young Laurie Lee walks out of his Cotswold valley with a violin, a tent, and a little money.

2. 2
   London

   He tramps east across England, fiddling for pennies, and labours through a season in the capital.

3. 3
   Vigo, Spain

   On an impulse he takes a ship for Spain, knowing only how to ask in Spanish for a glass of water.

4. 4
   Valladolid

   He crosses the burning Castilian meseta, playing the violin for bread, wine, and a floor to sleep on.

5. 5
   Madrid

   The capital in high summer, in a country sliding toward war.

6. 6
   Toledo

   South through Castile and the plains of La Mancha.

7. 7
   Almuñécar

   He winters on the Mediterranean shore until, in July 1936, the Civil War breaks out and a British warship carries him away.