Akenfield

Published in 1969, this portrait of an English village-given the name Akenfield and based on a Suffolk parish-is built from recorded speech. Farm workers, craftsmen, a schoolteacher, clergy, and others talk about hiring, harvest, class, church, and the shift from horse to tractor. Blythe arranges the voices by generation and occupation so that a single place is seen across the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. The book is oral history rather than a novel: it has no invented plot, but a composite account of rural work, deference, and change in one East Anglian settlement.

Quarter-bound in dark brown cloth with design printed white paper covers. Dark brown slipcase.