BLYTHE NOT SO LITHE
Writer Ronald Blythe has died aged 100. Deemed too docile to fight in World War II, he instead spent the 40s and 50s weaving his way into literary circles. His own author career began writing novels, but his specialty would be profiling the English countryside. His 1969 work Akenfield, which covers a fictionalised Suffolk town that’s a composite of several real-life equivalents, is considered his magnum opus. His weekly column in The Church Times was also well regarded, and true to his rural bona fides, he eschewed driving and computers his entire life. He was picked by two teams: BROWN BANANAS, and a joker for time’s Ronnies. This continues last year’s pattern of the Ronnies having two January hits, now the wait is on to see if the remainder of the year proves more prosperous for them than last year’s 11-month drought.
Ronald Blythe
6 November 1922 – 14 January 2023, aged 100
2 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀 4 POINTS, 🃏 (x1) 8 POINTS)