Woven from the words of the inhabitants of a small Suffolk village in the 1960s, Akenfield is a masterpiece of twentieth-century English literature, a scrupulously observed and deeply affecting portrait of a place and people and a now vanished way of life. Ronald Blythe's book raises enduring questions about the relations between memory and modernity, nature and human nature, silence and speech.

“I have nominated this book for the category People and Place as it resonates with my own personal history, having been born in Suffolk, with my Grandfather working and being raised in the rural and agricultural traditions of the area (this book was one of his personal favourites). Akenfield is not a romantic depiction of rural life, rather a study based on the oral histories of the people living in the area capturing their thoughts on “farming, education, welfare, class, religion and indeed life and death.””
— Justin Eagle