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  • Cider with Rosie

  • By: Laurie Lee
  • Narrated by: Laurie Lee
  • Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (439 ratings)
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Cider with Rosie cover art

Cider with Rosie

By: Laurie Lee
Narrated by: Laurie Lee
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Summary

Cider with Rosie is a wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, Laurie Lee depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belongs to a now-distant past.

©1989 Laurie Lee (P)2009 Random House Audio Books

What listeners say about Cider with Rosie

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful Narration

I read this book as a teenager and couldn't decide whether to buy it anew on my Kindle or go for the audio version. In the end I felt to have Laurie Lee read it to me would be a bit special...and it was! I have listened to the opening section of the book may times as it is one of my favourite passages from literature. A wonderful, evocative book brought to life by its author.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A very special experience

I read this many years ago and remember loving it, conjuring up a whole vivid lost world in wonderfully gentle prose. I wanted to re-read it, but to listen to it instead read by the author was pure magic. A classic, and my best audio book to date.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Yawwwwwn!!!

For many, many years I've had a great desire to read this book and never quite got around to it. With my new found love of audiobooks I am rapidly catching up on all those books. Unfortunately, this is one of my first big let downs. At the back of my mind I sense it may actually be that the drawling and heavy narration by Laurie Lee himself has let this version down. I purposefully bought this version as i thought narration by the authour would bring something special to the book but he must have narrated his tale a million times and this shows in his tone. I have managed a very sporadic couple of hours but now I have no desire to go back... this version is deleted and gone for good. All is not lost though, I would still like to listen to his story. There are a number of versions for me to preview, next time I will listen out for a younger and more enthused narrator who canbring this classic tale to life for me rather than putting me to sleep.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Treat yourself

Theres a reason Laurie Lee gets studied in English class. His writing is as close to poetry as you will find from any author, perfectly capturing and evoking every mood and scene with the fewest of words and often using those words in surprising combinations. Having this book read by the author himself adds extra interest. He is no polished speaker. But his sympathetic, gruff, rural accent is a delight.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

From the Horse's Mouth

Any additional comments?

I was almost put off buying this book by one review which said that the narration, by Laurie Lee himself, let it down and by another review that said his voice was "bored". Well each to their own. Lee would have been quite an old man when he recorded his reading. He also has a slight Gloucestershire lilt to his voice. This gives the narration a gentle pace and a warmth that lulls you into a state of peacefulness. I, for one, loved the narration. Further, getting it from the horse's mouth, you could not get a more accurate representation of this book.

Whilst Lee uses some flowery language at times, this is a lovely, well told, memoir of a time 100 years ago when the old world and the new were moving from one to the other. His candid and observant telling of events around about him in a small village in the countryside kept me hooked from start to finish. I highly recommend it.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting peep at the past

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes, the narrator.

Would you recommend Cider with Rosie to your friends? Why or why not?

No, because of the narrator (even if he is the author).

How could the performance have been better?

Yes, it certainly could have been. The voice was bored, wheezing breath intake, at time phlegm gurgling sound

Was Cider with Rosie worth the listening time?

I could only bear to listen for maximum half an hour at a time, then the voice irritated me

Any additional comments?

A more interesting voice would make all the difference. Even my old dad told tales of his youth in early 1900s in a much more interesting way

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • s
  • 06-06-17

Recommended by a friend

I couldn't get into. I found the readers voice hard to listen to. so gave up early.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

So completely right

This is a performance I return to regularly. Although the whole story is enchanting and conjures up time gone by, hearing it read in Laurie Lee’s own soft cotswold accent is incredibly soothing. If I’m awake in the night, this is my go to. I don’t need to listen to the story, so I can drift off and know that when I wake, I shall have slept well, and Laurie will still be gently burbling a bucolic love song to his lost world. ❤️❤️❤️

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pure magic!

Wonderful to hear the story narrated by the man Laurie himself in his later years. Adds a magical touch.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Recreated a world that has long since disappeared.

Where does Cider with Rosie rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Highly rated and really enjoyed the book

What did you like best about this story?

Loved the description of this world that has gone, especially from the point of view of a little boy. There was an added benefit of having Laurie Lee read it himself - I felt that this added to the book.

Any additional comments?

Lovely gently listen, full of lovely description and lovely people who just got on with the life they were born to without question.

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4 people found this helpful