NYRB publicist Nick During joins us to discuss Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 100. We talk about the tricky business of categorization, the tension between work and vocation, and the nature of agricultural society.  Massive thank you to John Hoekstra, who composed our theme music. References: BookCourt  Edwin Frank Word from Wormingford  The View in Winter  John Piper  Shell Guides  John Nash Cedric Morris  Charfield Studs Terkel  Matt Weiland  Antony Beevor  Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman  The Red Thread: Twenty Years of NYRB Classics  The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village by Mary Chamberlain  Iris Murdoch