Blythe Spirit Audiobook By Ian Collins cover art

Blythe Spirit

The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Blythe Spirit

By: Ian Collins
Narrated by: David Holt
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.15

Buy for $18.15

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

'An intimate and insightful portrait of the peerless observer of rural life' RICHARD MABEY

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

'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.

©2024 Ian Collins (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Feel-Good
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Blythe Spirit

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.