Product Description

This enthralling book will take you, month-by-month, day-by-day, through all the festivities of English life. From national celebrations such as New Year’s Eve to regional customs such as the Padstow Hobby Horse procession, cheese rolling in Gloucestershire and Easter Monday bottle kicking in Leeds, it explains how they originated, what they mean and when they occur. A fascinating guide to the richness of our heritage and the sometimes eccentric nature of life in England, The English Year offers a unique chronological view of our social customs and attitudes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19916 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
'This is an essential, indispensable book, and should be as much a part of the civilised library as a dictionary or atlas.'

About the Author
Steve Roud has been researching British folklore for over thirty years. He is the author of The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, and winner of the 2004 Katharine Briggs Folklore Award.

Customer Reviews

Thoroughly fascinating
Nowadays the English are starting to wonder about their own culture and roots and Roud's useful and interesting compendium is a good place to start. Not only does it include customs still practised today like Hallaton's Hare Pie and Bottle-Kicking, but also historical events that are often mentioned in song or legend, such as Bartholomew's Fair. It's well written, beautifully illustrated and equally good for dipping into or looking something up. It serves to prove that the English are deep down not the boring, staid, polite folk the world thinks they are.

authoritative and readable
I bought this book for a friend, but kept it myself after being impressed by its dip-into-ability, its authority, readability and the fact that it is clearly the product of considerable research. The author has drawn widely in his search for the origins of English customs and is not afraid to dispense with a few myths along the way: if there is no evidence that a custom 'has its origins in the Middle Ages' he'll say so. An impressive piece of work.

see also
Those who enjoyed this will probably also Enjoy Richard Lewis' The Magic Spring: My Year Learning to be English