NYRB publicist Nick During joins us to discuss Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 100. We talk about the tricky business of categorization, the tension between work and vocation, and the nature of agricultural society.
Massive thank you to John Hoekstra, who composed our theme music.
References:
BookCourt
Edwin Frank
Word from Wormingford
The View in Winter
John Piper
Shell Guides
John Nash
Cedric Morris
Charfield
Studs Terkel
Matt Weiland
Antony Beevor
Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman
The Red Thread: Twenty Years of NYRB Classics
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village by Mary Chamberlain
Iris Murdoch