Blythe Spirit

The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe: WINNER OF THE NEW ANGLE PRIZE 2025

By: Ian Collins

Narrated by: David Holt

'Tender and revelatory, Blythe Spirit gives us both the patron saint of the English countryside and a frank portrait of a complex figure' MARK COCKER, COUNTRY LIFE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

'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.©2024 Ian Collins

Critic reviews

Painted with love, wit and a dash of mischief, the affectionate portrait in Blythe Spirit shuns reverence in favour of the sort of delight in everyday wonder - and eccentricity - that stamped the subject's own writing about place, people, art and literature (Boyd Tonkin)

As loving as it is candid . . . wonderful (Kathryn Hughes)

Blythe was indeed remarkable, and this affectionate but clear-sighted biography celebrates a life well-lived (Peter Parker)

Ian Collins' tender, funny, perceptive biography brings his friend Ronnie Blythe vividly to life, contradictions, sex life and all (Patrick Gale)

The biography conjures a lost world of letter-writing and weekend visits, with country life providing the time and space to form lasting bonds . . . deeply moving (Guy Spratt)

Rich and enjoyable (Literary Review)

Unputdownable . . . Every chapter here is a stand-alone wardrobe of fascinating stuff (Martin Newell)

Beautiful . . . an example of how to treat an unusual person as perfectly usual to himself . . . a remarkable life and a remarkable life-story (John Spurling)

Teeming with colourful characters, telling episodes and fascinating insights into the way Ronnie set about his literary calling . . . [Blythe Spirit is] a vibrant song of praise

An engaging and sympathetic portrait (D. J. Taylor)

Remarkable . . . Perhaps the greatest praise for Collins - and maybe it was why Blythe chose him - is that he has written in the character of Blythe: interested, affectionate, but unsentimental. It would have made Ronnie extremely cheerful.