NYRB publicist Nick During joins us to discuss Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 100. We talk about the tricky business of categorization, the tension between work and vocation, and the nature of agricultural society. 

Massive thank you to John Hoekstra, who composed our theme music.

References:

BookCourt 

Edwin Frank

Word from Wormingford 

The View in Winter 

John Piper 

Shell Guides 

John Nash

Cedric Morris 

Charfield

Studs Terkel 

Matt Weiland 

Antony Beevor 

Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman 

The Red Thread: Twenty Years of NYRB Classics 

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village by Mary Chamberlain 

Iris Murdoch