Offers a collection of folk music - one of the great English popular art forms. This book brings together all the classic folk songs and many lesser- known discoveries, complete with music and annotations on their original sources and meaning.
Takes readers month-by-month, day-by-day, through the festivities of English life. This book explains how the festivities originated, what they mean and when they occur.
In which part of North London were wild beasts once thought to roam the sewers? Why did 1920s working-class Londoners wear necklaces of blue beads? Who was the original inspiration for the 'pearly king' costume? And did Spring-heeled Jack, scourge of Victorian London, ever really exist? Exploring everything from local superstitions and ghost stories to annual customs, this is an enchanting guide to the ancient legends and deep-rooted beliefs that can be found the length and breadth of the city.
The first major new book on British superstitions and their history in over a generation, this survey not only explains what people have believed and why, but when superstitions arose, which parts of the country adopted them, how they evolved and what people believe today. Drawing extensively on literary sources from medieval times to the present, the book settles many arguments, debunks many myths and provides in the process a fascinating sideways view of social customs and beliefs over the centuries.