My Midsummer Morning

My Midsummer Morning
Alastair Humphreys

Seasoned adventurer Alastair Humphreys pushes himself to his very limits – busking his way across Spain with a violin he can barely play.In 1935 a young Englishman named Laurie Lee arrived in Spain. He had never been overseas; had hardly even left the quiet village he grew up in. His idea was to walk through the country, earning money for food by playing his violin in bars and plazas.The book Laurie Lee wrote – As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning – inspired Alastair Humphreys. It made him fall in love with Spain – the landscapes and the spirit – and with Laurie's style of travel. He travelled slow, lived simply, slept on hilltops, relished spontaneity, and loved conversations with the different people he met along the hot and dusty road.For 15 years, Alastair dreamed of retracing Laurie Lee’s footsteps, but could never get past the hurdle of being distinctly unmusical. This year, he decided to go anyway. The journey was his most terrifying yet, risking failure and humiliation every day, and finding himself truly vulnerable to the rhythms of the road and of his own life. But along the way, he found humility, redemption and triumph. It was a very good adventure.

Copyright (#u5d2a73f3-5e2b-5183-be62-7a885a7323f4)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://WilliamCollinsBooks.com)

This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2019

Copyright © Alastair Humphreys, 2019

Extracts from As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London, on behalf of the Beneficiaries of the Estate of Laurie Lee.

Copyright © Laurie Lee 1969

Here Comes the Sun, words and music by George Harrison © 1969 Harrisongs Limited. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured.

Used by permission of Hal Leonard Europe Limited

Cover and interior illustrations by Neil Gower

All photographs © Alastair Humphreys

Alastair Humphreys asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this eBook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Source ISBN: 9780008331825

Ebook Edition © May 2019 ISBN: 9780008331832

Version: 2019-05-20

Dedication (#u5d2a73f3-5e2b-5183-be62-7a885a7323f4)

For Sarah

‘Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces.’

Epigraph (#u5d2a73f3-5e2b-5183-be62-7a885a7323f4)

‘You asked for it. It’s up to you now.’

‘But I was in Spain, and to the new life beginning.’

Laurie Lee, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

Contents

Cover (#u2ee73b3f-160d-5f82-b62b-7d97bb00ee92)

Title Page (#ub660afe2-fb02-5538-9df8-ff178a6b6c73)

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Prologue

Imagine

Life

One Moment

Laurie

Direction

Adventure

Becks

Music Lesson

Progress

Into Spain

First Play

Hope

Encouragement

Preparation