A Moment of War
historyA Moment of War (1991) by author Laurie Lee is the last book of his semi-autobiographical trilogy. It covers his time as a combatant in the Spanish Civil War, from 1937-38. The preceding books of the trilogy are Cider With Rosie (1959) and As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969).
The book describes how, in December 1937, Lee wanted to return to Spain to fight for the Republican cause. He could not persuade anyone to help him and so eventually crossed the Pyrenees alone, in a snowstorm. On encountering republican sympathisers he was suspected of being a Nationalist spy and was imprisoned more than once. However, he was eventually accepted. Although he trained as a soldier his main role was to make short-wave broadcasts to Britain and America from the International Brigade headquarters in Madrid while the city was under siege. He left for France in February 1938.
There is some doubt about the accuracy of Lee's account. Lee himself wrote that his diaries of the time had been stolen and he had to rely on memory for his eyewitness account. .