LETTER OF THE MONTH
A man for all seasons
Michael Wood’s celebration of the life and work of Ronald Blythe (Comment, March) reminded me what a wonderful treat it is to come upon Blythe’s writing for the first time. His book about the 1920s and 1930s, The Age of Illusion, imaginatively recreates an England that is very different to today but also, in some ways, recognisable from the foibles of celebrities to the desire to follow the latest trends. As Blythe documents, for many at that time, that meant joining the [influential leftwing book group] the Left Book Club.
Blythe was also a remarkably good is a brilliant portrayal of the poignant and sometimes comic readjustments that are made when someone belatedly leaves the family nest. Michael Wood is on to something when he suggests that the past is very close by when we have the likes of Ronald Blythe to hand.
