Reviews

Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe

svdp's review

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

halschrieve's review against another edition

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4.0

Akenfield is an oral history project which charts the effects of industrial agriculture on the British rural worker. It is a superb study of the conditions of farmers in the early twentieth through mid twentieth century. Something that really stands out is the abject poverty many of the older residents remember from their youth, and the lack of schooling or literacy that characterized rural life. Additionally, I think the book makes clear that this poverty was not from time immemorial but resulted from the lack of ownership of common lands--and while technological innovation and the expansion of the state into the lives of poor people brought higher standards of living in some cases, the subsequent drive of young people into the cities was not uncomplicated.

totalityranger's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

andrewspink's review

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This book was absolutely fascinating.  I expected it to be a little dry, but nothing could be further from the truth. The verbatim accounts of what average country folk in the 60s had to say about their lives in the previous decades was really interesting and compellingly told. "You may not have noticed but telly plays are full of wonderful ornamental ironwork", from the blacksmith. "Pigs are interesting people", from the pig farmer. Incest is apparently no problem from the upper class magistrate.  
A wonderful book, I'm really glad I read it.

michael_levy's review

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funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

billypilgrim's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

ipb1's review against another edition

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4.0

[a:Laurie Lee|79787|Laurie Lee|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1325510162p2/79787.jpg] was lying - village life was shit not exactly the idyll of [b:Cider With Rosie|15997406|Cider With Rosie|Laurie Lee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486775853l/15997406._SY75_.jpg|1401317]. And for god's sake skip the campanologist chapter - campanologists are even duller than you would imagine. But the memories of the survivors of the Great War through to the later voices of farm-workers, teachers, clergy et al, create a unique and engrossing portrait of village life.

cloudweaver's review against another edition

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reflective relaxing slow-paced

3.0

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