This is a book I've been slowing reading, interrupted by also attending the various personal appearances by the author as he talks about its genesis. I've heard Ian Collins speak at Felixstowe Book Festival and at an event celebrating the 'Akenfield' exhibition at The Food Museum in Stowmarket recently. Ian will also be speaking at the Leiston Book Festival next month.

While I've always been aware of the iconic book about Suffolk rural life, 'Akenfield' by Ronald Blythe, and once met the author when he visited us at Browsers Bookshop in Woodbridge, I've never read the book in entirety or felt it was a text with which I wanted to engage. Until now.

This year I've been speaking to Jenny Hall, the daughter of the late director Sir Peter Hall, about her stage play reinterpreting 'Akenfield' for today's audience. This year is the 50th anniversary of the release of the film produced by her father, and her play will be performed at venues throughout Suffolk in September and October. You can buy tickets here.

So I've been intrigued by this biography and Ian's own story of meeting and befriending Ronald Blythe.

The book is beautifully written and dense with information, as you would expect when the subject is such a prolific chronicler of nature, literature and rural life. 

My fascination with Ronnie's circle of friends never dims - he inherited his house from the artist John Nash and his wife Christine who first met Ronnie when he was working in a library. Ronnie also knew Cedric Morris, Benjamin Britten, EM Forster, Patricia Highsmith and Richard Mabey, and many more artists and writers. 

Ian was named as Ronnie's executor and so had unparalleled access to letters, notebooks, published works and drafts, as well as anecdotes and conversations from the decades of their friendship.

This is the first time Ronnie's full story has been told and the affection, reverence and sensitivity of the author towards his subject is very evident. I've found it a wonderful book to dip into time and again.