"Blythe was born in abject poverty, a Suffolk labourer's son whose family slept on mattresses made of straw. He never went to school or university but taught himself, through reading and friendships with artistic, bohemian rural residents, particularly the artists John and Christine Nash. He published more than 40 books in his lifetime, including social history, fiction, poetry, rural nature writing and essays."
"We are delighted to have acquired Ronald Blythe's archive, which will be a wonderful resource for Blythe scholars and those interested in the societal and cultural changes that Blythe's work chronicled. According to Melody, the archive offers an amazing insight into the century he lived through because he did a lot of reflecting backwards as well as thinking about contemporary events too. Blythe's papers reveal the depths of his research for Akenfield, which tells the vivid and unvarnish"
Ronald Blythe's archive has been acquired by the British Library and will make a century of rural life available to readers and researchers. Blythe lived and wrote in East Anglia until his death in 2023 at age 100. Akenfield, a global bestseller, records a Suffolk village during late-1960s agricultural and social upheaval. The archive contains more than a million words in neat handwriting across school workbooks and index cards, reflecting Blythe's pre-computer, former-librarian habit of immaculate ordering. Cataloguing is expected to take a year. Blythe was born into poverty, self-taught, befriended artists John and Christine Nash, and published over 40 books across genres.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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