About this Event
In this landmark, deeply affecting book, Ronald Blythe captures the words spoken by the people in his Suffolk village in 1967, portraying a now-vanished way of life.
We join around fifty villagers - including "The Survivors" of War, "The Orchard Men", teachers, bell-ringers, the vet, the wheelwright and even the gravedigger - to be transported back to the 1960s, and further back through childhood memories and lore passed down generations. This is a time when children were told to "Drink all you can at school" as there was no running water at home; a time of hand-made nails, and wooden wheels - made from wych-elm, unsplittable thanks to the twist in its growth; a time when a farm hand could join the army and gain a stone, as he was no longer being "worked to death"...
Blythe's fascinating book mines the deep tension between the villagers' respect for tradition and desire for progress, raising enduring questions about the relationship between memory and modernity, nature and human nature, silence and speech.
Find out masses more about all our books on our substack: https://emilyswalkingbookclub.substack.com/
N.B. Please ensure that you have read the book BEFORE coming on the walk - or it risks spoiling the event for other walkers. If you've don't quite have time to read the book, please consider instead joining the Monday evening Zoom, for which reading the book isn't a prerequisite.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00