By . Simon Cable . PUBLISHED: . 20:11 EST, 20 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 02:39 EST, 21 February 2013 . Her father rose to fame capturing his idyllic village upbringing in the best-selling novel Cider With Rosie. But for Laurie Lee’s daughter, Jessy, life growing up with the celebrated author was a very different story. Miss Lee has revealed that she was driven to seek therapy as a result of her father’s ‘controlling’ behaviour. Overwhelmed: Jessy Lee, daughter of author Laurie Lee, pictured at her family home in the Slad Valley, said she struggled with a controlling father . The 49-year-old said she struggled to cope with the writer’s extreme mood swings and admitted she is only now coming to terms with her upbringing, almost 16 years after her father’s death. She has claimed that as an only child she was often forced to mediate between her parents if they quarrelled and said the strain of frequently moving between Gloucestershire and London left her ‘unable to make sense of my background’. She said: ‘It was very difficult being his daughter and he did suffer with his epilepsy. His moods could be extreme and, of course, he liked a drink or two so I never knew how he was going to be from one minute to the next. ‘When you’re younger, you tend to think, “What have I done to provoke this?”’ Controlling: Poet and novelist Laurie Lee was 'extreme' in his mood swings, his daughter has revealed . Miss Lee became a psychotherapist in . 1998 – a year after her father died at the age of 82 – and said she was . inspired by the help she was given in overcoming her own problems. ‘I’m sure that’s true of most people who train as therapists,’ she told Cotswold Life magazine. Cider With Rosie evokes a long-lost, rural England that was on the cusp of being overwhelmed by the modern age. Published in 1959, it is Laurie Lee’s best-loved work and immortalised his childhood in Slad, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, after the First World War. Rosie was, years later, revealed to be his cousin Rosalind Buckland. At the age of 16, Lee joined a firm of chartered accountants, but did not enjoy the work. In 1934 he walked to London, playing his violin to make money. Settling in Putney, he worked as a builder’s labourer, but soon travelled to Spain where he joined the International Brigade in the civil war in 1937. Back in England he was rejected from the Army due to poor health. The first volume of his autobiography, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, was published in 1969. Lee gained recognition as a poet during the Second World War. ‘I did feel that I’d been left with this extraordinary legacy and my mother and I felt rather alone with it. 'Psychotherapy was the way forward for me to try to make sense of my background, to understand the world differently.’ She added: ‘I did some interesting work on only children as a therapist. 'People talk about sibling rivalry but very little has been done about the only child, except to say they tend to grow up much more quickly because they often have to be the mediator between both parents. ‘I often felt like I was looking after . both parents. Laurie didn’t want me to grow up, either. He wanted to . keep me where he could control me. I think there’s no secret there. ‘I was so overwhelmed by being out of . control of my world. But I’ve learned to take back my control and that . has enabled me to have this passion now for bringing Laurie back for his . centenary [next year] – and forever.’ Laurie . Lee married Catherine Polge in 1950 and Jessy was born in 1963, four . years after he wrote Cider With Rosie, which has sold six million copies . worldwide. In the book Lee . details how his own father, Reginald, abandoned the family when Lee was a . child. He later bought the family home in Slad, Gloucestershire. The author also owned a property in Fulham and the family spent much of their time moving between the two locations. It meant that Miss Lee was constantly switching schools when she was growing up. ‘I . used to go to two schools at once,’ she added. ‘Not the most stable of . upbringings. I’d be at Painswick School half the year and Park Walk . School in Chelsea the other. I never really knew where I was from. I . didn’t know my place in the world.’
Author Laurie Lee's daughter unveils less than idyllic childhood .
Jessy, 49, on coming to terms with her fate 16 years after father's death .
By . Simon Cable . PUBLISHED: . 20:11 EST, 20 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 02:39 EST, 21 February 2013 . Her father rose to fame capturing his idyllic village upbringing in the best-selling novel Cider With Rosie. But for Laurie Lee’s daughter, Jessy, life growing up with the celebrated author was a very different story. Miss Lee has revealed that she was driven to seek therapy as a result of her father’s ‘controlling’ behaviour. Overwhelmed: Jessy Lee, daughter of author Laurie Lee, pictured at her family home in the Slad Valley, said she struggled with a controlling father . The 49-year-old said she struggled to cope with the writer’s extreme mood swings and admitted she is only now coming to terms with her upbringing, almost 16 years after her father’s death. She has claimed that as an only child she was often forced to mediate between her parents if they quarrelled and said the strain of frequently moving between Gloucestershire and London left her ‘unable to make sense of my background’. She said: ‘It was very difficult being his daughter and he did suffer with his epilepsy. His moods could be extreme and, of course, he liked a drink or two so I never knew how he was going to be from one minute to the next. ‘When you’re younger, you tend to think, “What have I done to provoke this?”’ Controlling: Poet and novelist Laurie Lee was 'extreme' in his mood swings, his daughter has revealed . Miss Lee became a psychotherapist in . 1998 – a year after her father died at the age of 82 – and said she was . inspired by the help she was given in overcoming her own problems. ‘I’m sure that’s true of most people who train as therapists,’ she told Cotswold Life magazine. Cider With Rosie evokes a long-lost, rural England that was on the cusp of being overwhelmed by the modern age. Published in 1959, it is Laurie Lee’s best-loved work and immortalised his childhood in Slad, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, after the First World War. Rosie was, years later, revealed to be his cousin Rosalind Buckland. At the age of 16, Lee joined a firm of chartered accountants, but did not enjoy the work. In 1934 he walked to London, playing his violin to make money. Settling in Putney, he worked as a builder’s labourer, but soon travelled to Spain where he joined the International Brigade in the civil war in 1937. Back in England he was rejected from the Army due to poor health. The first volume of his autobiography, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, was published in 1969. Lee gained recognition as a poet during the Second World War. ‘I did feel that I’d been left with this extraordinary legacy and my mother and I felt rather alone with it. 'Psychotherapy was the way forward for me to try to make sense of my background, to understand the world differently.’ She added: ‘I did some interesting work on only children as a therapist. 'People talk about sibling rivalry but very little has been done about the only child, except to say they tend to grow up much more quickly because they often have to be the mediator between both parents. ‘I often felt like I was looking after . both parents. Laurie didn’t want me to grow up, either. He wanted to . keep me where he could control me. I think there’s no secret there. ‘I was so overwhelmed by being out of . control of my world. But I’ve learned to take back my control and that . has enabled me to have this passion now for bringing Laurie back for his . centenary [next year] – and forever.’ Laurie . Lee married Catherine Polge in 1950 and Jessy was born in 1963, four . years after he wrote Cider With Rosie, which has sold six million copies . worldwide. In the book Lee . details how his own father, Reginald, abandoned the family when Lee was a . child. He later bought the family home in Slad, Gloucestershire. The author also owned a property in Fulham and the family spent much of their time moving between the two locations. It meant that Miss Lee was constantly switching schools when she was growing up. ‘I . used to go to two schools at once,’ she added. ‘Not the most stable of . upbringings. I’d be at Painswick School half the year and Park Walk . School in Chelsea the other. I never really knew where I was from. I . didn’t know my place in the world.’
Laurie Lee’s daughter, Jessy, life growing up only now coming to terms with her upbringing, almost 16 years after her father’s death. She has