Next to Nature: A Lifetime in the English Countryside

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I cannot fault the quality of the writing, but the endless references to the Bible, sermons and church life generally, although they may form a huge part of Blythe's life today, have very little to do with the dramatic change we have seen in the countryside, even since Akenfield. Being with Ronnie Blythe in one of his books is like being on a magic carpet, the exhilaration of being alive, and of nature, and the world -- Ian Collins * Today Programme * Next to Nature is the perfect memorial, a latter-day Book of Hours . To immerse yourself in this East Anglian year is be reminded of why we love and value the rhythms and realities of rural life. He brings us to his local parish churches as he preaches, reads Scripture, and sings, whether the organist has shown up or not.

His work, which won countless awards, includes Akenfield (a Penguin 20th-Century Classic and a feature film), Private Words, Field Work, Outsiders: A Book of Garden Friends and numerous other titles. Occasionally one is lost, bringing mourning as surely as a villager passing on, and truth be told, these aren't the only intrusions of that other, less forgiving time: "in the market town, the stone griffins on the church tower maintain their watch, seeing off goblins and foul fiends. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded their prestigious Benson Medal in 2006. In these troubled times it is good to read about the joys of nature and tied in with the Anglican faith Ronald Blythe will be sadly missed by his readers since his passing , he contributed much in his writing living a simple down to earth life and appreciating nature.

Reading this book is to be in the company of a supremely sensitive observer who has spent a lifetime seeing and scenting nature .

There are some lovely passages and overall Ronald Blythe is an immense figure in his field but this is best reserved for those who share his Christian ways as first and foremost this is a book about his day to day religious thoughts. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it's more like having a well-read friend than a subscription to a literary review. From here, Blythe spent almost half a century observing the slow turn of the agricultural year, the church year and village life in a series of rich, lyrical rural diaries. It is a selection of Blythe’s regular columns for the Church Times, covering many years and arranged by month. The melancholy ever-rolling stream of Time through dark old rooms, the tilting photographs of past incumbents in damp vestries, the melting ice in dank shrubberies, the unwanted (or possibly longed for) companion catching one up in the foggy lane, and history seen as a medieval box of fun holy tricks to poke about in, these were among the experiences of January.I think Ronald Blythe is a genius in a special, but perhaps overlooked, journalistic genre – the nature notes or country talk columns.