Blythe Spirit- The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe by Ian Collins and published by John Murray will prove to be the definitive account of the life of Ronald Blythe.

Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Blyth was a remarkable man and this book has been written by someone very close to him for over thirty five years and as a huge fan of Blythe’s writing I was very glad to hear that Ian Collins was writing this. Collins was able to draw upon a vast collection of Blythe’s letters, notebooks and unpublished writings as well as his own personal memories of time spent with him to create this unique insight into Blythe’s long and often complicated life.

What is remarkable about Ronald Blythe is that the quality and quantity of his writing output was done when most would consider retirement, his church diaries were being written and published in his seventies and eighties with the truly beautiful Next to Nature published shortly before his death at the age of one hundred.

Blythe’s childhood was one of abject poverty, the eldest child, he left school at fourteen with university nothing but a pipe dream. Of his childhood Blythe spoke little to his biographer but surely this helped shape what would become Akenfield, his greatest literary achievement?

He led a very private life, deeply religious but not without sexual adventure. During his formative years homosexuality was illegal in England and Collins reveals via Blythe some of his lovers. But none ever appear to have been truly great loves of his, perhaps the passage of time and the age he grew up in held him back from revealing more.

In describing his literary friendships he was more open, he owed both a financial and emotional debt to John and Christine Nash who gifted him their home of Bottengoms and the friends who, in later years provided the means for him to remain there until the end.

Very few knew the real Ronnie Blythe, I am not sure he did either but Collins’ biography, granted by Blythe is, like the subject, warm but unsentimental and nobody could have written it better than Collins. In many ways I didn’t need this book, his beautiful writings of the everyday, unremarkable comings and goings were enough for me. Reading his diary entries inspires me to lead a gentler, simple life, we see that there is something endearingly innocent about his life which has been lost to the modern age. We consume far more than we can digest, maybe Blythe did have episodes which would contradict my impression of him but then maybe we don’t always need to know everything.