LAURIE Lee’s memoir Cider With Rosie established him as one of England’s most treasured writers, selling more than six million copies worldwide.

The classic was turned into a BBC dramatisation last week, with almost four million viewers tuning in to see a portrayal of Lee’s home in the Stroud Valleys.

Now 18 years after his death, a new collection of beautifully-crafted and long-lost essays are about to be published.

The new essays were only brought to light after his Daughter Jessy Lee unearthed the eight hidden pieces in his archive at the British Library.

Titled ‘Village Christmas: And Other Notes on the English Year’, the collection is partly written by hand and part typed, and will be published by Penguin Classics on November 5.

Hailed as ‘a work of genius’ by his agent, these new essays offer up a touching account of the landscapes and traditions of Lee’s childhood home in Slad.

They include memories of his youth, as well as his battle in his old age to save his beloved Slad Valley from developers.

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Arranged by season, Lee's paints a lyrical portrait of England through the changing years and seasons, again demonstrating his skill for showing the intimate and beautiful detail of the British countryside.

With titles such as ‘A Cold Christmas Walk in the Country’, ‘Harvest Festival’ and ‘The Shining Severn’, they detail the nostalgia of centuries-old May Day rituals and family gatherings on Christmas Eve.

Born in Stroud in 1914, Laurie Lee was educated at Slad village school and Stroud Central School.

He left when he was 19, but he returned to the village in the 1960s and it remained his home until his death in 1997.

While Lee remains best known for Cider with Rosie, his other works include As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991).

These second two novels recount his journey on foot to Spain, his experience of the Civil War, and his return in 1937 to join the Republican International Brigades in the fight against Franco's Nationalists - joined by writers such as George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway.

Despite his success as a novelist, Lee’s one true love was poetry, though he was only moderately successful.

A troubled genius, Lee died in Slad on 13 May 1997, at the age of 82. He is buried in the local churchyard.

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