Cider with Rosie: Samantha Morton interview. Samantha Morton says she found a kind of solace in portraying Laurie Lee's beleaguered mother Annie in the bold new TV version of Cider with Rosie. The vivid tale of life in rural England almost a century ago is part of a BBC season that aims to represent, through its treatment of the period's literary classics, the condition of society at times of momentous change. Though removed by time and place, there was a common ground in the sense of isolation – Annie in the countryside of Edwardian England; Morton through her Nottingham childhood that was riven by divorce, parental violence, alcohol- ism, foster care and homelessness. The Bafta- winning actress has also said that she suffered sexual abuse while in care, but that neither the police nor social services investigated the claims. Cider with Rosie is a 1959 book by Laurie Lee (published in the US as Edge of Day: Boyhood in the West of England, 1960). It is the first book of a trilogy that continues with As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991). I live in a small village in Surrey, England, with my husband Jason and our handsome cocker spaniel Teddy. Jason and I are old souls. We like crosswords, walks in the woods, and are forever on the search for the best pizza dough recipe. Shop the latest trends in Rosie for Autograph at M&S. Order online for home delivery or free collection from your nearest store. DEAL OF THE WEEK Enjoy 50% off selected lines for seven days only, including our star buy of the week at better than half price. BBC Radio Gloucestershire's Mark Cummings went to interview Rosie recently, and was thrilled to meet her. Said Mark: 'Most people think Rosie is no longer with us but she's very much alive and well - in her 90s now - and fit. Last week marked the centenary of Laurie Lee's birth. That's reason enough for revisiting Cider With Rosie. Heck, waking up in the morning is motivation enough for re-opening this wonderful book. But the thing that most persuaded us at Guardian HQ to discuss.
Playing the part, she says, was simultaneously hard and natural as Annie, in her solitude, became nothing less than . Morton first came across Cider with Rosie when she was 1. Lee isn't just writing about his love for the valley, she explains, but also acknowledging his own past behaviour, such as his part in hatching an (unsuccessful) plot with other lads to rape a local girl. When talking about her education – or rather the lack of it – her anger isn't directed towards her parents, natural or step, who were clearly bowed beneath the weight of their own problems. No, her target is the state and the system that she says deprived her of books, paper, pencils; the materials of learning. I also realised the importance of having your own room in which to think, feel, breathe, all these things. The clue is there in her own words, which echo the title of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. This, she says, made an indelible impression on her. So too did a number of American authors, including John Williams, who wrote the much- admired campus novel Stoner. First published in 1. Then there is Charles Bukowski's bleakly autobiographical Ham on Rye. And Rupert Thomson's dystopian 2. Divided Kingdom, which she could read . It can, she agrees, help with the professional challenge of becoming other people. In her own career the range has become impressively broad, from the dumb laundress in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1. Academy Award nomination, through Myra Hindley in Longford (2. Golden Globe, to her starring role in last year's Miss Julie, directed by Liv Ullmann. Outsider or not, she could hardly be more present in conversation: ardent, optimistic, passionate, impatient and, as she acknowledges, a ready stock of lasting resentment at the way in which education passed her by. She remembers the frustration of trying to engage teachers in discussion. What is the story of this man? Or the IRA – why are they being talked about? Asking the teacher why we couldn't learn about these things and him saying, 'Because the syllabus says we have to do Roman coins. Something like this is going on in Britain right now, but there is so much resistance to the fact that we are transforming that it breaks my heart.? She disagrees, arguing that being taught properly at a young age is the key to lifelong learning. Consequently she despairs at the closure of Sure Start Centres, where books are available to those who cannot afford to buy them, describing this as nothing less than a scandal. But she got her hands on the instructive tools of her working life. The student in her found a keen teacher; the teacher in her found an eager student, and this surely is one crucial element of a remarkable story. Cider with Rosie begins on BBC1 tonight (Sunday 2. September) at 8. 3.
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