SOURCE: A review of A Moment of War, in Books, London, Vol. 5, No. 5, September-October, 1991, p. 26.

Glover is an English nonfiction writer who frequently focuses on historical events and themes. In the review of A Moment of War below, he finds Lee's autobiographical account of the Spanish Civil War "an affecting, engaging document."

Laurie Lee is one of the most popular and least prolific of our contemporary novelists: the sequence of autobiographical novels that began with the publication of Cider with Rosie in 1959—which has sold almost two million copies in paperback alone—will be continued this autumn with the appearance of A Moment of War, a fictional memoir of Lee's experiences as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War in 1937.

The enduringly popular Cider with Rosie was rich—almost too rich, some might argue—with the sensuous, timeless details of a Gloucestershire childhood; by comparison, A Moment of...