Next to Nature

A Lifetime in the English Countryside

Next to Nature
Ronald Blythe
RRP:
NZ$ 75.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 60.00
Hardback
h240 x 156mm - 480pg
27 Oct 2022 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781399804660
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
' One of the great prose stylists on the twentieth century . . . a modern Hazlitt' Mark Cocker' England' s greatest living country writer' INDEPENDENTRonald Blythe lives at the end of an overgrown farm track deep in the rolling countryside of the Stour Valley, on the border between Suffolk and Essex. His home is Bottengoms Farm, a sturdy yeoman' s house once owned by the artist John Nash. From here, Blythe has 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. Beginning with the arrival of snow on New Year' s Day and ending with Christmas carols sung in the village church, Next to Nature invites us to witness a simple life richly lived. With gentle wit and keen observation Blythe meditates on his life and faith, on literature, art and history, and on our place in the landscape. It is a celebration of one of our greatest living writers, and an unforgettable ode to the English countryside.
Praise for Ronald Blythe England' s greatest living country writer * Independent * Blythe' s observations of nature are as unforced as breathing, and his descriptions are precise, celebratory and unexpected . . . [He] seduces even the irreligious reader into an appreciation of the meshing of the temporal and the timeless * Guardian * [Ronald Blythe] is an English institution . . . he lives with a deep, authentic sense of wonder * TLS * Some of the most beautiful and precise prose in modern English . . . an expansive exploration of how land scapes, humans, and words interact, touched with great humanity. . . He is our tribal storyteller, plugged into a common stream of inquisitive conversation that joins us as a species -- RICHARD MABEY One of the great prose stylists on the twentieth century . . . a modern Hazlitt -- MARK COCKER The finest rural historian of our times * Country Life * It would be difficult to find . . . a sensibility which is richer or better fed, more deeply watered and manured, more drenched in Englishness -- ADAM NICOLSON [His] minute observation of places, people and plants, his ear for scraps of dialogue and his feeling for poetry and painting make everything about those days immediate . . . [He has] a deep of love of the place - and of humanity -- MAGGI HAMBLING The best portrait of modern rural life in England, subtle and compassionate -- ROGER DEAKIN, on Akenfield The doyen of writers about the natural world in England -- MICHAEL McCARTHY
Ronald Blythe CBE is one of the UK' s greatest living writers. His work, which has 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. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literary and was awarded their prestigious Benson Medal in 2006. In 2017, he was appointed a CBE for services to literature.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781399804660
Published: 27 Oct 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: John Murray Publishers
Publisher: John Murray Press
Format: Hardback
Height: 240mm
Width: 156mm
Pages: 480

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