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  • Blythe Spirit: The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe: SHORTLISTED FOR THE NEW ANGLE PRIZE 2025

    Blythe Spirit by Collins, Ian;

    The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe: SHORTLISTED FOR THE NEW ANGLE PRIZE 2025

      • GET 15% OFF

      • The discount is only available for 'Alert of Favourite Topics' newsletter recipients.
      • Publisher's listprice GBP 12.99
      • The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

        6 410 Ft (6 105 Ft + 5% VAT)
      • Discount 15% (cc. 962 Ft off)
      • Discounted price 5 449 Ft (5 189 Ft + 5% VAT)

    6 410 Ft

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    Availability

    Not yet published.

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    Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.

    Product details:

    • Publisher John Murray
    • Date of Publication 6 November 2025
    • Number of Volumes Print PDF

    • ISBN 9781399819091
    • Binding Paperback
    • No. of pages pages
    • Size 198x129 mm
    • Language English
    • Illustrations N/A
    • 700

    Categories

    Long description:

    'Moving, candid, vivid, it is all that we could hope for in a memoir of this unique and treasured writer' ROWAN WILLIAMS

    'An unusually intimate and affectionate portrait' PATRICK BARKHAM, GUARDIAN

    'As a boy I dreamed of scholars and saints wandering around markets and cornfields, and of artists and poets sitting under the trees.'


    Ronald Blythe (1922-2023), author of the inimitable Akenfield, was a prolific and poetic chronicler of rural and spiritual life, nature and literature. He spent a joyful century close to his Suffolk roots, time travelling in his imagination and publishing forty books and thousands of essays. His wide creative network included John and Christine Nash, Cedric Morris, Benjamin Britten, E. M. Forster, Patricia Highsmith and Richard Mabey.

    From finding Thomas Hardy in February rain and John Clare in country tracks, to talking to his white cat and reading through a dragonfly's wings, the Blythe gift was to marvel in the everyday. His writing was intimate, meditative and often laced with a wry humour, inviting readers to share his enchanting perspective on the world. Yet few knew the 'real' Ronald Blythe. Leaving school at 14, he educated himself in libraries, churches and walks in the East Anglian landscape. He never spoke about early poverty and traumatic experience in the war, while his sexuality was kept private except from those closest to him.

    Drawing on unparalleled access to letters, notebooks, published works, drafts, and conversations from decades of friendship, Ian Collins tells the full story of Ronald Blythe for the first time. The result is a sensitive, revelatory portrait which celebrates a fascinating, complex man and casts new light on one of our greatest writers.

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