Ronald Blythe
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Ronald Blythe (b. 1922) is an English writer, born in Suffolk, England. He has lived in East Anglia since 1955 when he became a writer full time. He is best known in his native England for his Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969), a portrait of agricultural life in Suffolk from the turn of the century to the 1960s. The book, deemed unfilmable by Blythe, was brought to the screen for the BBC by director Peter Hall in 1974, working in collaboration with Blythe (who had a role as the vicar in the telefilm). Much of his work continues to focus on the subject of rural England. In North America, Blythe is perhaps best known for the great variety of his writing, including short stories, essays, poetry and literary criticism.
Blythe was educated in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was a reference librarian in Colchester for ten years, where he founded the Colchester Literary Society. While a young man, he worked for Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival.
He later became editor of Penguin Classics for more than 20 years and in this capacity has edited modern editions of works by such writers as Thomas Hardy, Henry James and William Hazlitt. He has also prepared a number of compilations, including The Pleasure of Diaries (1989) and Private Words: Letters and Diaries from the Second World War (1993).
Contents |
[edit] List of publications (partial)
[edit] As writer
- A Treasonable Growth (1960)
- The Age of Illusion (1964)
- Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969)
- A View in Winter: Reflections on Old Age (1979)
- From the Headlands (1982)
- Divine Landscapes (1986)
- Word from Wormingford (1998)
- Talking About John Clare (1999)
- Out of the Valley (2000)
[edit] As editor
- Writing in a War (1982, originally published as Components of the Scene in 1966)
- The Penguin Book of Diaries (1989. also published as The Pleasures of Diaries and Each Retuning Day)
- Private Words: Letters and Diaries from the Second World War (1991)
- Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd
- Henry James, The Awkward Age
- William Hazlitt, Selected Writings
