Once

A Memoir

Conducting a journey from boyhood to manhood, this is the revealing autobiography of poet Andrew McNeillie. From an airplane crossing north Wales, the middle-aged writer looks down on the countryside of his childhood in this fascinating memoir, recalling an almost fabulous world now lost to him. From an ordinary daily life and education in Llandudno, this account follows the subject through some of the wilder parts of Snowdonia, depicting McNeillie’s experiences in nature during a period of increasing urbanization. Continually crossing the border between town and country, this recollection communicates an almost Lawrentian aspect to the author’s intense relationship with the natural world as well as the place of man within it. Acute and powerful, this exploration also delves into McNeillie’s relationship with his father, his discovery of literature and the development of his own poetic sensibility, and his growing awareness of the opposite sex. Triangulated between three locations, this engaging story visits the poet’s birthplace, a Snowdonian lake, and the subject’s home in his teenage years. A beautifully written eulogy for a retreating countryside now valued more for its leisure potential than as a source of human fulfillment, this narrative is shaped by the natural world and by nature poetry, clearly illustrating the evocative experience of memory and writing.