Learning from other writers

I paused from reading Ronald Blythe’s endearing memoir Next to Nature to read Remarque’s haunting novel about life in the trenches, All Quiet on the Western Front, over Christmas. While Blythe’s book is one to dip in and out of, Remark’s grabs you with the ferocity of a rabid dog and doesn’t easily let you go. I started it on Christmas Eve and finished it the next evening.

In many ways the books are opposites, Blythe described the innocence of everyday life in a Suffolk village, and how the Church of England and the natural world are intertwined. Remarque very clearly describes how the innocence of youth is quickly lost on the battlefield, and how the fear of death makes young men kill other young men, only occasionally pausing to remember that enemy soldiers are sons, husbands and fathers like themselves. 

Both books prompt the reader to question, and perhaps strengthen their faith. How I asked myself, have we let go of the simplicity of rural life, instead filling our time with often unproductive rush and bustle? How can politicians, even today, so easily prompt confrontations that can destroy a generation of young men? There is so much that needs to change if we are to live contend, peaceful lives.  

As a writer, I can see another connection between Blythe and Remarque. Both men have experienced, and have strong feelings about, the subject of the book they have written. Both have used fiction to explore something the feel strongly about.  Blythe did this well in Akenfield and Remarque in All Quiet on the Western Front.   

2023 will see work start on my next book, as well I hope as the publication of Where are the Fellows who Cut the Hay? These two writers have both given me clues as to the direction that new book should take.