Laurie Lee, it's safe to say, was an interesting person. The country boy who became a famous poet and author. The man who walked to Spain. The member of the International Brigades. The heroic drinker ... Even if he hadn't written about his life so eloquently, he'd be an object of fascination. As it is, with that lush, mesmeric prose and vivid descriptions of his life and times, it's hard not to want to know as much as possible about him. Not to mention hard not to wonder how closely his gorgeous eloquence reflects the real world.
Yet, while he invited curiosity, Laurie Lee might not always have enjoyed the scrutiny. During his lifetime he was castigated for womanising, immodesty, immoderate drinking and playing free and easy with the truth. It's hard to find many people who knew him who don't say that his virtues outweighed his vices – but there's no doubt that he was complicated. Which, of course, adds to the fascination. It's also cause for celebration that he found such an understanding and thorough biographer as Valerie Grove (who, among other things, helped lay to bed the vicious story that Lee had never been a member of the International Brigades). Her The Life And Loves Of Laurie Lee was published to critical acclaim in 1997 (originally titled Laurie Lee: The Well-Loved Stranger), and it remains the authoritative book on this wonderful character.
Which is a long way of explaining why I'm so pleased that Valerie has agreed to answer questions about Laurie Lee in a live webchat at 1pm on Friday 25 July. You should also know that she is a journalist of distinction, a former literary editor of the Evening Standard, a long-standing feature writer, interviewer and columnist for The Times and has also written biographies of Dodie Smith and John Mortimer. She'll be online on Friday – but do feel free to get your questions in early. In fact, we have 10 copies of The Life And Loves Of Laurie Lee to give away. We're keen to put copies in the hands of the first 10 readers in the UK to post "I want a copy please", along with a nice constructive question for Valerie. And if you're lucky enough to get your request in quick enough, don't forget to email laura.kemp@theguardian.com as we can't track you down ourselves. Be nice to her too.
