SOURCE: "My Enemy's Enemy Is Not My Friend," in The Spectator, Vol. 267, No. 8520, October 26, 1991, pp. 38-9.

Corke is an English educator, poet, editor, and translator. In the following review, Corke calls A Moment of War a "remarkable story."

In December 1937 Spain was tearing itself apart and Laurie Lee could no longer bear to remain outside the country that had given his mind its second birth. He was 'betraying the people of Spain'. Failing to convince the regular recruiters, he made himself into a one-man International Brigade and hiked over the Pyrenees. The closing page of As I Walked Out has him walking with his violin between the two rocks that marked the frontier and knocking at the first door. 'Pase usted.'

That was published in 1969. Now, at last, 22 years later [in A Moment of War], we find out what happened next: which was that his apparently...