Ronald Blythe: The Time by the Sea

Distinguished writer, essayist and anthologist Ronald Blythe is best-known for his classic portrayal of 1960s Suffolk village life, Akenfield. This year sees publication of a new memoir, The Time by the Sea, in which he remembers life in the mid-1950s and the early years of the Aldeburgh Festival, with a social scene dominated by the likes of Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Imogen Holst, John and Christine Nash and many other artists, writers and musicians. Blythe recounts also his discoveries - in the arts, botany, and the history and geography of his native county. It's a wonderfully nostalgic interview recalling a bygone era, recorded in the seclusion of Blythe's remote home on the Essex/Suffolk border.