I really enjoyed today's post. My grandma as a young teen of 14 was a lady's maid to a doctor's wife in Southampton for 11 months. The doctor tried to rape an underage girl, who asked a grown woman was only 4'11". Next day the lady of the house said that as long as he didn't crawl into her bed, she didn't care what he did. Servants were paid a year in arrears, so the woman refused to pay her a penny when she left. Gran walked from Southampton all the way to Exeter, wearing out he working boots, and her Sunday boots, before reaching home "without a penny to scratch my arse with''. My mild, loving gran was still outraged when she told me when she was over 90. Yes, Downtown is not real, and the snobbery and nastiness is played down.
Akenfield is a wonderful evocation of a lost time. Some of my 1970s boyhood was spent in a small East Anglian village, and echoes of the world Blythe’s masterpiece describes were still evident. Last Christmas my daughter bought me his celebration of the country year - Next to Nature. I’ve been reading it month by month, as slowly as possible to make it last! Thank you for another fascinating post.
It's the best book I've ever read about English rural life! Knocks spots off Cider with Rosie! So many memories. The intensive pig farmer who says, a little guiltily, that pigs are very interesting people. The retired district nurse - one of the few women who speaks - who says, it was not true that the old people were well cared-for, she remembered the old people left neglected by the fireside. The farm labourer who remembers men being literally worked to death. The villagers who drew drinking water from the village pond and fell ill with 'pond pox'. The vet who remembers farm labourers walking home in the rain, covered in sacking, while their wives prepared the bacon with four inches of fat on it that they needed to revive. Would I want that world back? No, actually, though it is true we townies have lost skills and a closeness to nature.
Thank you Sarah, your excellent review brought it all flooding back.
The New York Review of Books podcast did a good episode on Akenfield a while back. They suggested, as a female perspective for balance, Fenwomen by Mary Chamberlain, researched in Cambridgeshire a few years later. Have you read it? I haven't, yet.
Fascinating Sarah- just reading Blythe’s biography by Ian Collins, so it’s great to have this as background. I want to track down the podcast mentioned here too.
Akenfield is such a moving book. I used to teach very near by and a couple of the teachers I worked with were in the Peter Hall film. Thank you for such an interesting piece.
What a terrific look at Blythe's Akenfield. It's a brilliant narrative of times gone, but also on the cusp of something new and very different. I love his writing and as comments below say - Next to Nature is just lovely and to be savoured.
Akenfield was recommended to me many years ago when a student, but I never got round to reading it until now. How I regret that! My mum was brought up in a tiny village in Dorset, and she would have recognised much of what was shared in Blythe’s interviews. She was born in 1923 (like Gregory the blacksmith) and used to talk about overhearing the ‘old boys’ in the area speaking in the local dialect, in words and phrases that the younger people never used and have since died out. Her mother was a Londoner (my grandparents met via WWI - another story) and was determined her twin daughters were not going into service, so mum and her sister boarded and worked in Bournemouth as shop assistants, which mum loathed as she always wanted to be outdoors. She joined the WAAF as soon as she was old enough and saw yet more life beyond the village. Her stories of her country childhood and her later war experiences were a constant background to my childhood and I so regret not recording these and even more, not asking my old country grandad about his own recollections of his childhood in rural Hampshire. I’m sure it would have been redolent of the anecdotes in Akenfield. Ronald Blythe did us all an immense service and I’m so thankful finally to have got round to reading his wonderful book.
I really enjoyed this, and need to actually get around to reading the book before a trip to Suffolk in a couple of months. For another great read in a similar vein, but Oxfordshire based, I recommend Lifting the Latch, Sheila Stewart.
Fascinating piece. Your observations on the village women makes me think of EM Delafield who was devoted to the WI. She plays it for laughs in the Provincial Lady Diaries, journeying by train in freezing weather to give talks on amateur dramatics etc, but you can see why she thought it so important.
Engaging post, Sarah! Thanks for introducing me to a 1960s historian and reminding me that the oral histories of the era are goldmines today--for what they reflect about the '60 and today! Well done.
I really enjoyed today's post. My grandma as a young teen of 14 was a lady's maid to a doctor's wife in Southampton for 11 months. The doctor tried to rape an underage girl, who asked a grown woman was only 4'11". Next day the lady of the house said that as long as he didn't crawl into her bed, she didn't care what he did. Servants were paid a year in arrears, so the woman refused to pay her a penny when she left. Gran walked from Southampton all the way to Exeter, wearing out he working boots, and her Sunday boots, before reaching home "without a penny to scratch my arse with''. My mild, loving gran was still outraged when she told me when she was over 90. Yes, Downtown is not real, and the snobbery and nastiness is played down.
Akenfield is a wonderful evocation of a lost time. Some of my 1970s boyhood was spent in a small East Anglian village, and echoes of the world Blythe’s masterpiece describes were still evident. Last Christmas my daughter bought me his celebration of the country year - Next to Nature. I’ve been reading it month by month, as slowly as possible to make it last! Thank you for another fascinating post.
Next to Nature is such a wonderful book. I meant to read it slowly but could never resist just another one... 😂
It's the best book I've ever read about English rural life! Knocks spots off Cider with Rosie! So many memories. The intensive pig farmer who says, a little guiltily, that pigs are very interesting people. The retired district nurse - one of the few women who speaks - who says, it was not true that the old people were well cared-for, she remembered the old people left neglected by the fireside. The farm labourer who remembers men being literally worked to death. The villagers who drew drinking water from the village pond and fell ill with 'pond pox'. The vet who remembers farm labourers walking home in the rain, covered in sacking, while their wives prepared the bacon with four inches of fat on it that they needed to revive. Would I want that world back? No, actually, though it is true we townies have lost skills and a closeness to nature.
You have an excellent memory for so many of the little nuggets I loved. I thought about including the bit about old people, very interesting
Thank you Sarah, your excellent review brought it all flooding back.
The New York Review of Books podcast did a good episode on Akenfield a while back. They suggested, as a female perspective for balance, Fenwomen by Mary Chamberlain, researched in Cambridgeshire a few years later. Have you read it? I haven't, yet.
No, but sounds interesting!
Super! Do you have a link for the podcast?
Fascinating Sarah- just reading Blythe’s biography by Ian Collins, so it’s great to have this as background. I want to track down the podcast mentioned here too.
Akenfield is such a moving book. I used to teach very near by and a couple of the teachers I worked with were in the Peter Hall film. Thank you for such an interesting piece.
What a terrific look at Blythe's Akenfield. It's a brilliant narrative of times gone, but also on the cusp of something new and very different. I love his writing and as comments below say - Next to Nature is just lovely and to be savoured.
It's going on my list to be read!
Akenfield was recommended to me many years ago when a student, but I never got round to reading it until now. How I regret that! My mum was brought up in a tiny village in Dorset, and she would have recognised much of what was shared in Blythe’s interviews. She was born in 1923 (like Gregory the blacksmith) and used to talk about overhearing the ‘old boys’ in the area speaking in the local dialect, in words and phrases that the younger people never used and have since died out. Her mother was a Londoner (my grandparents met via WWI - another story) and was determined her twin daughters were not going into service, so mum and her sister boarded and worked in Bournemouth as shop assistants, which mum loathed as she always wanted to be outdoors. She joined the WAAF as soon as she was old enough and saw yet more life beyond the village. Her stories of her country childhood and her later war experiences were a constant background to my childhood and I so regret not recording these and even more, not asking my old country grandad about his own recollections of his childhood in rural Hampshire. I’m sure it would have been redolent of the anecdotes in Akenfield. Ronald Blythe did us all an immense service and I’m so thankful finally to have got round to reading his wonderful book.
It is such an extraordinary record. But I now realise how much it owes to Blythe's writing style..I'm reading his collected essays, a real treat
I really enjoyed this, and need to actually get around to reading the book before a trip to Suffolk in a couple of months. For another great read in a similar vein, but Oxfordshire based, I recommend Lifting the Latch, Sheila Stewart.
It might be interesting to read Fenwomen by Mary Chamberlain next - also social history from East Anglia, mid-1970s, utterly eye-opening!
Fascinating piece. Your observations on the village women makes me think of EM Delafield who was devoted to the WI. She plays it for laughs in the Provincial Lady Diaries, journeying by train in freezing weather to give talks on amateur dramatics etc, but you can see why she thought it so important.
Engaging post, Sarah! Thanks for introducing me to a 1960s historian and reminding me that the oral histories of the era are goldmines today--for what they reflect about the '60 and today! Well done.
Looking forward to reading this Sarah. I heard about Ronald Blythe on Radio 4 (and his passing).
The American counterpart of the Civil Defense Corps would be the National Guard, which still exists.
We should start it up again, I feel we may need it