Laurie Lee

His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie (1959), As I walked out one Midsummer Morning and I Can't Stay Long. He also published a number of poems during World War II, and later his memoirs of the Spanish Civil War.

Lee attended Stroud Central School, leaving at fifteen to become an errand boy. He later worked as an office clerk and a builder's labourer, and lived in London for a year before travelling around Spain, where he took an art degree. His civil war service was cut short by his physical shortcomings. During the Second World War, he became a documentary film-maker.

Cider with Rosie continues to be one of the UK's most popular books, sometimes used as a text by schoolchildren.