Return to Akenfield Quotes

“We don’t really have a staff room. We do have one, but … it’s freezing in there. So at lunch times we sit down there with the children. We’re always around, so the relationships are very different. You don’t often hear raised voices here.”
― Craig Taylor, Return To Akenfield: Portrait Of An English Village In The 21st Century

“But Akenfield did not bow to sentimental ideas of the countryside as idyll. Blythe’s villagers spoke too of the brutality of country life, and of hopes to escape the village. Their lives were a complex mix of wide-open spaces and limited opportunities. As Blythe later remarked, ‘I think my view of human life is how brief and curious most people’s lives are. Yet when you come to talk to them you realize how strong they are and how unbelievably rich their lives are; also subtle and various.”
― Craig Taylor, Return To Akenfield: Portrait Of An English Village In The 21st Century