Under a Broad Sky

by Ronald Blythe

With reverence and love, Britain’s most admired rural writer chronicles daily life in the Stour valley village, finding beauty and significance in its sheer ordinariness as well as in its many literary, artistic and historic associations. The year takes its shape from the seasons of nature and the feasts and festivals of the Christian year. Each informs and illuminates the other in this loving celebration of nature’s gifts and neighbourly friendship. Literature, poetry, spirituality and memory all merge to create an exquisite series of stories of our times. These delightful essays first appeared in the ‘Word From Wormingford’ column, a popular back page feature of the Church Times for some 20 years. It was praised as one of the finest journalistic columns by the Guardian in November 2012.

Genres: Nature

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2013

About the author

Ronald Blythe CBE was one of the UK's greatest living writers. His work, which won countless awards, includes Akenfield (a Penguin 20th-Century Classic and a feature film), Private Words, Field Work, Outsiders: A Book of Garden Friends and numerous other titles. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded their prestigious Benson Medal in 2006. In 2017, he was appointed CBE for services to literature

Reviews

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delight. The book is a collection of his weekly columns for the Church Times. It's beautifully written with the author's deep knowledge and broad view of life well expressed. I don't share his belief but I was brought up in the C of E so I can appreciate it. He ranges across literary life but he also lyrically describes the beauties of the parish and the Stour Valley where he lives. In essence, his is the voice of traditional Anglicanism with a tolerance of difference and a love of learning and reading this will repay many times over.

[Karen Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another volume of Blythe's columns from the Church Times. I so enjoy these essays, full of gentle wisdom and musings, memories of friends alive and dead, gardening, walking, local history and Anglican services, his white cat. He makes everyone come alive, from St. Paul and St. Timothy, to the poet-priest George Herbert, and the artist John Nash whose house he inherited, as well as his neighbors and friends from all over.
"Always doubt 'progress.' It is sometimes progressive to to return to what was, to what was long-tested and found best. Yet, at the same time, we have to be visionary. Remember Lot's wife?"

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful and reflective essays, a quiet companion for the year

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poetic journal of the liturgical and natural year on the Sussex/Essex border by England's finest chronicler of rural life.