The Circling Year: Perspectives from a Country Parish

Open the ancient door of an old church, says Ronald Blythe, and framed in the silence is a house of words where everything has been said: centuries of birth, marriage and death words, gossip, poetry, philosophy, rant, eloquence, learning, nonsense, the language taught by the hymn writers and Bible translators - all of it spoken in one place.
The Circling Year contains some of the words spoken by Ronald Blythe in the group of parish churches along the Essex bank of the River Stour which he serves not only as a Reader in the Church of England, but as the local writer expected to add his own distinctive voice.
Originating as addresses given at Matins or Evensong, they follow various paths into old and new liturgies, literature and the local countryside. They bring together the author's delight in language, his recollections of farming, his recognition of friends and neighbours, and the hopes he has found in faith.
Reflecting on the momentous and the small events which shape our lives, The Circling Year with its stories, poetry and humour encourages us to turn aside every now and again from the constant activity of our days and hear the wisdom of the ages that fills the air around us.