The Firstborn

Laurie Lee takes us back to the Age of Innocence. His poems are vivid and sensuous. In Cider with Rosie he recalls the unspoilt country of his childhood; and in this deeply moving essay Laurie Lee writes of the birth of his first child."This moment of meeting seemed to be a birthtime for both of us; her first and my second life. Nothing I knew would be the same again...She is of course just an ordinary miracle, but is also the late wonder of my life. So each night I take her to bed like a book and lie close and study her".