Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

a very useful book, 05 Sep 2005
this delightful books is a great resource for celebrating festivals with children and plently of lovely craft ideas and activities for all ages. A must have if your interested in the Steiner education approach. We use this all the time at home to shape our celebrations of the seasons.

Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

a very useful book, 05 Sep 2005
this delightful books is a great resource for celebrating festivals with children and plently of lovely craft ideas and activities for all ages. A must have if your interested in the Steiner education approach. We use this all the time at home to shape our celebrations of the seasons.

Hilarious, 21 Dec 2008
This is the sort of book that you will lend to someone at work, only to have to buy it again when they fail to return it (because they want to keep it). It's hilarious, so don't read it on the bus or train unless you want the other passengers to think you are having a seizure.

Laughter is assured as Harry explores up north, 07 Feb 2003
It is only natural that Pearson is compared to Bryson (from the front cover to the reviews). Insofar as this encourages you to buy the book, one can only confirm the similarities. I would rather prefer it to the early Bryson, as it concentrates more on people and their foibles (as well as sheep) than on book-learning. Pearson interweaves his research inobtrusively, and the book is clearly written by one who has travelled around the north of Britain's fairs and farms, and then done some homework in the library (and not the other way round like the more recent Brysons). This book will make you laugh out loud, whilst inspiring sympathy and interest in ways of life gone by. This book will age well, and the fact that it was written a few years ago is irrelevant. It is in my view an outstanding book, and it is a shame that probably most of its readers were football fans who have read his other books. This deserves a much wider audience. Buy it from amazon. You will not be disappointed. (and once you have read it, come back to the website and give this review a positive review, because I am right! If you hate the book, then a negative is in order. But you won't)

Prepare to chortle loudly on the train, 17 Sep 2002
Bill Bryson eat your heart out. Dry, incisive, irreverent and littered with wildly off-topic rants/ancedotes on everything from cinder toffee to psychotic sheep. A bit of history on the origins of English country fairs, mixed with wry observations on regional eccentricities. Please write more Mr pearson!

Funny and well informed, 25 Jul 2001
I first heard excerpts from this on Radio 4 in about 1997. I had to buy it after that, even after what he said about the West Riding. Harry Pearson tells us the history of Northern fairs and describes his visits to a number of them. If you like Bill Bryson you should enjoy this.

A hilarious journey through the northern countryside, 17 Jun 2001
This tape takes the listener across the countryside of northern England, in a journey where present day social commentary is linked back to the historical origins of the country fairs. The author carries the listener along with his unique brand of English humour. The descriptions of people and events strike a chord. At last an audio tape to rival those of Bill Bryson.

Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

a very useful book, 05 Sep 2005
this delightful books is a great resource for celebrating festivals with children and plently of lovely craft ideas and activities for all ages. A must have if your interested in the Steiner education approach. We use this all the time at home to shape our celebrations of the seasons.

Hilarious, 21 Dec 2008
This is the sort of book that you will lend to someone at work, only to have to buy it again when they fail to return it (because they want to keep it). It's hilarious, so don't read it on the bus or train unless you want the other passengers to think you are having a seizure.

Laughter is assured as Harry explores up north, 07 Feb 2003
It is only natural that Pearson is compared to Bryson (from the front cover to the reviews). Insofar as this encourages you to buy the book, one can only confirm the similarities. I would rather prefer it to the early Bryson, as it concentrates more on people and their foibles (as well as sheep) than on book-learning. Pearson interweaves his research inobtrusively, and the book is clearly written by one who has travelled around the north of Britain's fairs and farms, and then done some homework in the library (and not the other way round like the more recent Brysons). This book will make you laugh out loud, whilst inspiring sympathy and interest in ways of life gone by. This book will age well, and the fact that it was written a few years ago is irrelevant. It is in my view an outstanding book, and it is a shame that probably most of its readers were football fans who have read his other books. This deserves a much wider audience. Buy it from amazon. You will not be disappointed. (and once you have read it, come back to the website and give this review a positive review, because I am right! If you hate the book, then a negative is in order. But you won't)

Prepare to chortle loudly on the train, 17 Sep 2002
Bill Bryson eat your heart out. Dry, incisive, irreverent and littered with wildly off-topic rants/ancedotes on everything from cinder toffee to psychotic sheep. A bit of history on the origins of English country fairs, mixed with wry observations on regional eccentricities. Please write more Mr pearson!

Funny and well informed, 25 Jul 2001
I first heard excerpts from this on Radio 4 in about 1997. I had to buy it after that, even after what he said about the West Riding. Harry Pearson tells us the history of Northern fairs and describes his visits to a number of them. If you like Bill Bryson you should enjoy this.

A hilarious journey through the northern countryside, 17 Jun 2001
This tape takes the listener across the countryside of northern England, in a journey where present day social commentary is linked back to the historical origins of the country fairs. The author carries the listener along with his unique brand of English humour. The descriptions of people and events strike a chord. At last an audio tape to rival those of Bill Bryson.

Flag-planting for the Multicult, 23 Oct 2008
I applaud 'Steve' Roud for a compilation breathtaking in its scope and eye-catching in its layout and attention to detail. I condemn him for including material - cynically I believe - with no connection whatever to the English year, and but for which this might have an excellent book.

Excellent it isn't, in spite of good writing, first-class illustrations (many in colour), and entries commendably devoid of the brevity - sometimes no more than a paragraph or two for obsolete festivals - which frequently blights publications of this kind.

Highlights are many nevertheless. There is the Ashen Faggot of Devon (don't ask), Whipping Toms in Leicester (it would take too long), the alarmingly un-PC Bacup Coco-Nut Dancers and the Appleby Horse Fayre (a timeless cultural highlight in which people on social security dress up as 'Travellers' to while away the Employment Office lunch-hour in spitting on each others' hands, muttering dark oaths and arguing about which bet to place on the 3.20 at Kempton).

Ploughboy and Ploughmaid processions feature down in Fen Country. There is 'Bawming' the Thorn in the Cheshire village of Appleton. There is Bartle Burning in West Witton, Yorkshire. I didn't know Hurling, or a variant of it, started in Devon/Cornwall. I didn't know we had an Armada Day (19th July).

Better documented staples find a place, as you might expect, including Mumming (Christmas), Shrove Tuesday and Bonfire Night (a near miss we lament to this day as a nation still run by debauched scotchmen).

The Bonfire Night (5th November) procession at Lewes is the best known in England and should be seen by everyone at least once. Here the book comes into its own, using a particularly dramatic half-page colour print which actually enhances the writing rather just complementing it.

This fabulously mediaeval spectacle may not be to everyone's taste. I remember a delightful young American exchange student of my acquaintance, fascinated as a Catholic to hear of the goings-on in darkest Sussex, returning to college ashen-faced and barely able to speak as a consequence of what she'd seen the night before. May God bless the good and true English people of that lovely county. No Popery! [;-)]

Here then is true 'diversity', and if as a result the English slightly mystify the average outsider let us be sensible enough to celebrate this difference with as much enthusiasm as we reserve for what we hold in common. I thought to, if only by pushing the boat out and buying this in its hardcover edition. Roud's earlier collaboration with Jacqueline Simpson, a Dictionary of English Folklore, impressed me. I felt I couldn't lose.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the book at a colour plate of irish pipers swaggering down an English high street. What in god's name has the irish calendar to do with England's? What has it to do with anything at all that 'irish people living in England' like to celebrate St Patrick's Day?

Roud also includes St Andrews Day, but on a more acceptable ground of parallel English customs not strictly related to scotland's patron saint. St Patrick's Day is not acceptable. If the author had it mind to pander to the American market he should have written a different book.

The explanation for this nonsense lies in the introduction. Here the writer alludes to various institutions responsible for passing on scottish, welsh and irish cultures. His view is that an absence of anything similar in England works to the nation's advantage.

Apparently the English benefit from their culture, their history and their folklore being ignored ('even derided') in that they've avoided the gimmickry and kitsch associated with 'stronger' cultural identities. So that's all right then. But Roud goes further. He is 'proud' the English have '(n)ever taken much notice of St George's Day'. He enjoys this neglect all the more for the annoyance it causes patriots.

Thus an opportunity to defend a national folk culture under repeated attack from, among others, the very ethnicity included in these pages, turns out to exemplify once again that dreary old Orwellian dictum about the English and church poor boxes.

Naturally self-loathing is dressed up as 'good taste'. But Roud is really a snob, like most liberals, with the snob's characteristic scorn for one of the deepest and truest of human emotions - love of homeland and people, and the sympathy it gives for all men everywhere, irrespective of geography, race or culture, whom we know wish for themselves and their nation only what we would bestow upon our own.

It hasn't occurred to him that the ease with which politicians brush aside English public opinion on everything from independence to her unasked for role as milch cow to the union derives solely from the criminally enforced anonymity he prizes.

It doesn't enter his head that this same official contempt is what permitted a publican of eastern European descent, and without fear of prosecution, to erect a sign outside his premises on a recent St George's Day saying 'No English' (this actually happened in Cambridgeshire). Does he even care?

No-one would include St George's Day in a book on the irish year. But St Patrick's Day. isn't the only anomaly. Here we even get Chinese New Year thrown in for good measure. To paraphrase one classicist, 'It's a pretty poem, Mr Roud, but you mustn't call it English'.

Ultimately 'The English Year' is compromised. Ignore 'folklore awards' conferred by the same liberals who pack committees everywhere. A book that might have helped ignorant, deculturalized English children understand something of who they are has instead betrayed them, re-casting English identity to make them accept all that is alien as their own.

I give 'The English Year' two stars because I will not recommend what amounts to a flag-planting exercise for multiculturalism. Expect more 'representative' editions in future, the accent on 'fairness'.

I'm only sorry there wasn't a book-signing. I could have thrown the author thirty pieces of silver. Held in Appleby would have been even more appropriate. To be spat upon affords contempt no greater emphasis, and in this instance is scarcely any viler than the rank betrayal which warrants it.


authoritative and readable, 30 Aug 2007
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.

Thoroughly fascinating, 17 May 2007
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.

Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

a very useful book, 05 Sep 2005
this delightful books is a great resource for celebrating festivals with children and plently of lovely craft ideas and activities for all ages. A must have if your interested in the Steiner education approach. We use this all the time at home to shape our celebrations of the seasons.

Hilarious, 21 Dec 2008
This is the sort of book that you will lend to someone at work, only to have to buy it again when they fail to return it (because they want to keep it). It's hilarious, so don't read it on the bus or train unless you want the other passengers to think you are having a seizure.

Laughter is assured as Harry explores up north, 07 Feb 2003
It is only natural that Pearson is compared to Bryson (from the front cover to the reviews). Insofar as this encourages you to buy the book, one can only confirm the similarities. I would rather prefer it to the early Bryson, as it concentrates more on people and their foibles (as well as sheep) than on book-learning. Pearson interweaves his research inobtrusively, and the book is clearly written by one who has travelled around the north of Britain's fairs and farms, and then done some homework in the library (and not the other way round like the more recent Brysons). This book will make you laugh out loud, whilst inspiring sympathy and interest in ways of life gone by. This book will age well, and the fact that it was written a few years ago is irrelevant. It is in my view an outstanding book, and it is a shame that probably most of its readers were football fans who have read his other books. This deserves a much wider audience. Buy it from amazon. You will not be disappointed. (and once you have read it, come back to the website and give this review a positive review, because I am right! If you hate the book, then a negative is in order. But you won't)

Prepare to chortle loudly on the train, 17 Sep 2002
Bill Bryson eat your heart out. Dry, incisive, irreverent and littered with wildly off-topic rants/ancedotes on everything from cinder toffee to psychotic sheep. A bit of history on the origins of English country fairs, mixed with wry observations on regional eccentricities. Please write more Mr pearson!

Funny and well informed, 25 Jul 2001
I first heard excerpts from this on Radio 4 in about 1997. I had to buy it after that, even after what he said about the West Riding. Harry Pearson tells us the history of Northern fairs and describes his visits to a number of them. If you like Bill Bryson you should enjoy this.

A hilarious journey through the northern countryside, 17 Jun 2001
This tape takes the listener across the countryside of northern England, in a journey where present day social commentary is linked back to the historical origins of the country fairs. The author carries the listener along with his unique brand of English humour. The descriptions of people and events strike a chord. At last an audio tape to rival those of Bill Bryson.

Flag-planting for the Multicult, 23 Oct 2008
I applaud 'Steve' Roud for a compilation breathtaking in its scope and eye-catching in its layout and attention to detail. I condemn him for including material - cynically I believe - with no connection whatever to the English year, and but for which this might have an excellent book.

Excellent it isn't, in spite of good writing, first-class illustrations (many in colour), and entries commendably devoid of the brevity - sometimes no more than a paragraph or two for obsolete festivals - which frequently blights publications of this kind.

Highlights are many nevertheless. There is the Ashen Faggot of Devon (don't ask), Whipping Toms in Leicester (it would take too long), the alarmingly un-PC Bacup Coco-Nut Dancers and the Appleby Horse Fayre (a timeless cultural highlight in which people on social security dress up as 'Travellers' to while away the Employment Office lunch-hour in spitting on each others' hands, muttering dark oaths and arguing about which bet to place on the 3.20 at Kempton).

Ploughboy and Ploughmaid processions feature down in Fen Country. There is 'Bawming' the Thorn in the Cheshire village of Appleton. There is Bartle Burning in West Witton, Yorkshire. I didn't know Hurling, or a variant of it, started in Devon/Cornwall. I didn't know we had an Armada Day (19th July).

Better documented staples find a place, as you might expect, including Mumming (Christmas), Shrove Tuesday and Bonfire Night (a near miss we lament to this day as a nation still run by debauched scotchmen).

The Bonfire Night (5th November) procession at Lewes is the best known in England and should be seen by everyone at least once. Here the book comes into its own, using a particularly dramatic half-page colour print which actually enhances the writing rather just complementing it.

This fabulously mediaeval spectacle may not be to everyone's taste. I remember a delightful young American exchange student of my acquaintance, fascinated as a Catholic to hear of the goings-on in darkest Sussex, returning to college ashen-faced and barely able to speak as a consequence of what she'd seen the night before. May God bless the good and true English people of that lovely county. No Popery! [;-)]

Here then is true 'diversity', and if as a result the English slightly mystify the average outsider let us be sensible enough to celebrate this difference with as much enthusiasm as we reserve for what we hold in common. I thought to, if only by pushing the boat out and buying this in its hardcover edition. Roud's earlier collaboration with Jacqueline Simpson, a Dictionary of English Folklore, impressed me. I felt I couldn't lose.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the book at a colour plate of irish pipers swaggering down an English high street. What in god's name has the irish calendar to do with England's? What has it to do with anything at all that 'irish people living in England' like to celebrate St Patrick's Day?

Roud also includes St Andrews Day, but on a more acceptable ground of parallel English customs not strictly related to scotland's patron saint. St Patrick's Day is not acceptable. If the author had it mind to pander to the American market he should have written a different book.

The explanation for this nonsense lies in the introduction. Here the writer alludes to various institutions responsible for passing on scottish, welsh and irish cultures. His view is that an absence of anything similar in England works to the nation's advantage.

Apparently the English benefit from their culture, their history and their folklore being ignored ('even derided') in that they've avoided the gimmickry and kitsch associated with 'stronger' cultural identities. So that's all right then. But Roud goes further. He is 'proud' the English have '(n)ever taken much notice of St George's Day'. He enjoys this neglect all the more for the annoyance it causes patriots.

Thus an opportunity to defend a national folk culture under repeated attack from, among others, the very ethnicity included in these pages, turns out to exemplify once again that dreary old Orwellian dictum about the English and church poor boxes.

Naturally self-loathing is dressed up as 'good taste'. But Roud is really a snob, like most liberals, with the snob's characteristic scorn for one of the deepest and truest of human emotions - love of homeland and people, and the sympathy it gives for all men everywhere, irrespective of geography, race or culture, whom we know wish for themselves and their nation only what we would bestow upon our own.

It hasn't occurred to him that the ease with which politicians brush aside English public opinion on everything from independence to her unasked for role as milch cow to the union derives solely from the criminally enforced anonymity he prizes.

It doesn't enter his head that this same official contempt is what permitted a publican of eastern European descent, and without fear of prosecution, to erect a sign outside his premises on a recent St George's Day saying 'No English' (this actually happened in Cambridgeshire). Does he even care?

No-one would include St George's Day in a book on the irish year. But St Patrick's Day. isn't the only anomaly. Here we even get Chinese New Year thrown in for good measure. To paraphrase one classicist, 'It's a pretty poem, Mr Roud, but you mustn't call it English'.

Ultimately 'The English Year' is compromised. Ignore 'folklore awards' conferred by the same liberals who pack committees everywhere. A book that might have helped ignorant, deculturalized English children understand something of who they are has instead betrayed them, re-casting English identity to make them accept all that is alien as their own.

I give 'The English Year' two stars because I will not recommend what amounts to a flag-planting exercise for multiculturalism. Expect more 'representative' editions in future, the accent on 'fairness'.

I'm only sorry there wasn't a book-signing. I could have thrown the author thirty pieces of silver. Held in Appleby would have been even more appropriate. To be spat upon affords contempt no greater emphasis, and in this instance is scarcely any viler than the rank betrayal which warrants it.


authoritative and readable, 30 Aug 2007
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.

Thoroughly fascinating, 17 May 2007
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.

Well Worth Reading, 24 Mar 1998
This book was originally published in 1912 under the title "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan".

This Book not only covers Christmas, but Halloween and various Saint's Days.

Mr. Miles does an interesting job of exploring the lore behind Christmas breads and cakes, the Yule log, decorating, and the Christmas Dramas of Europe and the British Isles, earlier this century.

A quaint Northumberland ritual utilizing Holly leaves is presented from page 275 of this work:

"....Nine leaves are taken up and tied with nine knots into a
"handkerchief, and put under the pillow by a person who
"desires prophetic dreams.
"For this purpose smooth leaves (without prickles)
"must be employed...."
The next sentence informs us that "holly is hated by witches"....

A twist on the familiar "Kissing under the Mistletoe" is given on the previous page, and we are informed that after each kiss, the boy removes a berry from the bough, and "when the berries were all picked, the privilege ceased."

You will also find a scattering of black and white reproductions of paintings, a wonderfully etched reproduction of Albreht Durer's "Madonna and Child", as well as a bibliography, notes and an index.

This book is well worth it's modest price.

Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

a very useful book, 05 Sep 2005
this delightful books is a great resource for celebrating festivals with children and plently of lovely craft ideas and activities for all ages. A must have if your interested in the Steiner education approach. We use this all the time at home to shape our celebrations of the seasons.

Hilarious, 21 Dec 2008
This is the sort of book that you will lend to someone at work, only to have to buy it again when they fail to return it (because they want to keep it). It's hilarious, so don't read it on the bus or train unless you want the other passengers to think you are having a seizure.

Laughter is assured as Harry explores up north, 07 Feb 2003
It is only natural that Pearson is compared to Bryson (from the front cover to the reviews). Insofar as this encourages you to buy the book, one can only confirm the similarities. I would rather prefer it to the early Bryson, as it concentrates more on people and their foibles (as well as sheep) than on book-learning. Pearson interweaves his research inobtrusively, and the book is clearly written by one who has travelled around the north of Britain's fairs and farms, and then done some homework in the library (and not the other way round like the more recent Brysons). This book will make you laugh out loud, whilst inspiring sympathy and interest in ways of life gone by. This book will age well, and the fact that it was written a few years ago is irrelevant. It is in my view an outstanding book, and it is a shame that probably most of its readers were football fans who have read his other books. This deserves a much wider audience. Buy it from amazon. You will not be disappointed. (and once you have read it, come back to the website and give this review a positive review, because I am right! If you hate the book, then a negative is in order. But you won't)

Prepare to chortle loudly on the train, 17 Sep 2002
Bill Bryson eat your heart out. Dry, incisive, irreverent and littered with wildly off-topic rants/ancedotes on everything from cinder toffee to psychotic sheep. A bit of history on the origins of English country fairs, mixed with wry observations on regional eccentricities. Please write more Mr pearson!

Funny and well informed, 25 Jul 2001
I first heard excerpts from this on Radio 4 in about 1997. I had to buy it after that, even after what he said about the West Riding. Harry Pearson tells us the history of Northern fairs and describes his visits to a number of them. If you like Bill Bryson you should enjoy this.

A hilarious journey through the northern countryside, 17 Jun 2001
This tape takes the listener across the countryside of northern England, in a journey where present day social commentary is linked back to the historical origins of the country fairs. The author carries the listener along with his unique brand of English humour. The descriptions of people and events strike a chord. At last an audio tape to rival those of Bill Bryson.

Flag-planting for the Multicult, 23 Oct 2008
I applaud 'Steve' Roud for a compilation breathtaking in its scope and eye-catching in its layout and attention to detail. I condemn him for including material - cynically I believe - with no connection whatever to the English year, and but for which this might have an excellent book.

Excellent it isn't, in spite of good writing, first-class illustrations (many in colour), and entries commendably devoid of the brevity - sometimes no more than a paragraph or two for obsolete festivals - which frequently blights publications of this kind.

Highlights are many nevertheless. There is the Ashen Faggot of Devon (don't ask), Whipping Toms in Leicester (it would take too long), the alarmingly un-PC Bacup Coco-Nut Dancers and the Appleby Horse Fayre (a timeless cultural highlight in which people on social security dress up as 'Travellers' to while away the Employment Office lunch-hour in spitting on each others' hands, muttering dark oaths and arguing about which bet to place on the 3.20 at Kempton).

Ploughboy and Ploughmaid processions feature down in Fen Country. There is 'Bawming' the Thorn in the Cheshire village of Appleton. There is Bartle Burning in West Witton, Yorkshire. I didn't know Hurling, or a variant of it, started in Devon/Cornwall. I didn't know we had an Armada Day (19th July).

Better documented staples find a place, as you might expect, including Mumming (Christmas), Shrove Tuesday and Bonfire Night (a near miss we lament to this day as a nation still run by debauched scotchmen).

The Bonfire Night (5th November) procession at Lewes is the best known in England and should be seen by everyone at least once. Here the book comes into its own, using a particularly dramatic half-page colour print which actually enhances the writing rather just complementing it.

This fabulously mediaeval spectacle may not be to everyone's taste. I remember a delightful young American exchange student of my acquaintance, fascinated as a Catholic to hear of the goings-on in darkest Sussex, returning to college ashen-faced and barely able to speak as a consequence of what she'd seen the night before. May God bless the good and true English people of that lovely county. No Popery! [;-)]

Here then is true 'diversity', and if as a result the English slightly mystify the average outsider let us be sensible enough to celebrate this difference with as much enthusiasm as we reserve for what we hold in common. I thought to, if only by pushing the boat out and buying this in its hardcover edition. Roud's earlier collaboration with Jacqueline Simpson, a Dictionary of English Folklore, impressed me. I felt I couldn't lose.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the book at a colour plate of irish pipers swaggering down an English high street. What in god's name has the irish calendar to do with England's? What has it to do with anything at all that 'irish people living in England' like to celebrate St Patrick's Day?

Roud also includes St Andrews Day, but on a more acceptable ground of parallel English customs not strictly related to scotland's patron saint. St Patrick's Day is not acceptable. If the author had it mind to pander to the American market he should have written a different book.

The explanation for this nonsense lies in the introduction. Here the writer alludes to various institutions responsible for passing on scottish, welsh and irish cultures. His view is that an absence of anything similar in England works to the nation's advantage.

Apparently the English benefit from their culture, their history and their folklore being ignored ('even derided') in that they've avoided the gimmickry and kitsch associated with 'stronger' cultural identities. So that's all right then. But Roud goes further. He is 'proud' the English have '(n)ever taken much notice of St George's Day'. He enjoys this neglect all the more for the annoyance it causes patriots.

Thus an opportunity to defend a national folk culture under repeated attack from, among others, the very ethnicity included in these pages, turns out to exemplify once again that dreary old Orwellian dictum about the English and church poor boxes.

Naturally self-loathing is dressed up as 'good taste'. But Roud is really a snob, like most liberals, with the snob's characteristic scorn for one of the deepest and truest of human emotions - love of homeland and people, and the sympathy it gives for all men everywhere, irrespective of geography, race or culture, whom we know wish for themselves and their nation only what we would bestow upon our own.

It hasn't occurred to him that the ease with which politicians brush aside English public opinion on everything from independence to her unasked for role as milch cow to the union derives solely from the criminally enforced anonymity he prizes.

It doesn't enter his head that this same official contempt is what permitted a publican of eastern European descent, and without fear of prosecution, to erect a sign outside his premises on a recent St George's Day saying 'No English' (this actually happened in Cambridgeshire). Does he even care?

No-one would include St George's Day in a book on the irish year. But St Patrick's Day. isn't the only anomaly. Here we even get Chinese New Year thrown in for good measure. To paraphrase one classicist, 'It's a pretty poem, Mr Roud, but you mustn't call it English'.

Ultimately 'The English Year' is compromised. Ignore 'folklore awards' conferred by the same liberals who pack committees everywhere. A book that might have helped ignorant, deculturalized English children understand something of who they are has instead betrayed them, re-casting English identity to make them accept all that is alien as their own.

I give 'The English Year' two stars because I will not recommend what amounts to a flag-planting exercise for multiculturalism. Expect more 'representative' editions in future, the accent on 'fairness'.

I'm only sorry there wasn't a book-signing. I could have thrown the author thirty pieces of silver. Held in Appleby would have been even more appropriate. To be spat upon affords contempt no greater emphasis, and in this instance is scarcely any viler than the rank betrayal which warrants it.


authoritative and readable, 30 Aug 2007
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.

Thoroughly fascinating, 17 May 2007
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.

Well Worth Reading, 24 Mar 1998
This book was originally published in 1912 under the title "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan".

This Book not only covers Christmas, but Halloween and various Saint's Days.

Mr. Miles does an interesting job of exploring the lore behind Christmas breads and cakes, the Yule log, decorating, and the Christmas Dramas of Europe and the British Isles, earlier this century.

A quaint Northumberland ritual utilizing Holly leaves is presented from page 275 of this work:

"....Nine leaves are taken up and tied with nine knots into a
"handkerchief, and put under the pillow by a person who
"desires prophetic dreams.
"For this purpose smooth leaves (without prickles)
"must be employed...."
The next sentence informs us that "holly is hated by witches"....

A twist on the familiar "Kissing under the Mistletoe" is given on the previous page, and we are informed that after each kiss, the boy removes a berry from the bough, and "when the berries were all picked, the privilege ceased."

You will also find a scattering of black and white reproductions of paintings, a wonderfully etched reproduction of Albreht Durer's "Madonna and Child", as well as a bibliography, notes and an index.

This book is well worth it's modest price.

Good fun! , 18 Apr 2008
I bought this book when I was planning my wedding and it was a great help.
It deals with everything you would need in order to form a medieval celebration from the costume, food, music and decorations. I highly recommend this book!

Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

a very useful book, 05 Sep 2005
this delightful books is a great resource for celebrating festivals with children and plently of lovely craft ideas and activities for all ages. A must have if your interested in the Steiner education approach. We use this all the time at home to shape our celebrations of the seasons.

Hilarious, 21 Dec 2008
This is the sort of book that you will lend to someone at work, only to have to buy it again when they fail to return it (because they want to keep it). It's hilarious, so don't read it on the bus or train unless you want the other passengers to think you are having a seizure.

Laughter is assured as Harry explores up north, 07 Feb 2003
It is only natural that Pearson is compared to Bryson (from the front cover to the reviews). Insofar as this encourages you to buy the book, one can only confirm the similarities. I would rather prefer it to the early Bryson, as it concentrates more on people and their foibles (as well as sheep) than on book-learning. Pearson interweaves his research inobtrusively, and the book is clearly written by one who has travelled around the north of Britain's fairs and farms, and then done some homework in the library (and not the other way round like the more recent Brysons). This book will make you laugh out loud, whilst inspiring sympathy and interest in ways of life gone by. This book will age well, and the fact that it was written a few years ago is irrelevant. It is in my view an outstanding book, and it is a shame that probably most of its readers were football fans who have read his other books. This deserves a much wider audience. Buy it from amazon. You will not be disappointed. (and once you have read it, come back to the website and give this review a positive review, because I am right! If you hate the book, then a negative is in order. But you won't)

Prepare to chortle loudly on the train, 17 Sep 2002
Bill Bryson eat your heart out. Dry, incisive, irreverent and littered with wildly off-topic rants/ancedotes on everything from cinder toffee to psychotic sheep. A bit of history on the origins of English country fairs, mixed with wry observations on regional eccentricities. Please write more Mr pearson!

Funny and well informed, 25 Jul 2001
I first heard excerpts from this on Radio 4 in about 1997. I had to buy it after that, even after what he said about the West Riding. Harry Pearson tells us the history of Northern fairs and describes his visits to a number of them. If you like Bill Bryson you should enjoy this.

A hilarious journey through the northern countryside, 17 Jun 2001
This tape takes the listener across the countryside of northern England, in a journey where present day social commentary is linked back to the historical origins of the country fairs. The author carries the listener along with his unique brand of English humour. The descriptions of people and events strike a chord. At last an audio tape to rival those of Bill Bryson.

Flag-planting for the Multicult, 23 Oct 2008
I applaud 'Steve' Roud for a compilation breathtaking in its scope and eye-catching in its layout and attention to detail. I condemn him for including material - cynically I believe - with no connection whatever to the English year, and but for which this might have an excellent book.

Excellent it isn't, in spite of good writing, first-class illustrations (many in colour), and entries commendably devoid of the brevity - sometimes no more than a paragraph or two for obsolete festivals - which frequently blights publications of this kind.

Highlights are many nevertheless. There is the Ashen Faggot of Devon (don't ask), Whipping Toms in Leicester (it would take too long), the alarmingly un-PC Bacup Coco-Nut Dancers and the Appleby Horse Fayre (a timeless cultural highlight in which people on social security dress up as 'Travellers' to while away the Employment Office lunch-hour in spitting on each others' hands, muttering dark oaths and arguing about which bet to place on the 3.20 at Kempton).

Ploughboy and Ploughmaid processions feature down in Fen Country. There is 'Bawming' the Thorn in the Cheshire village of Appleton. There is Bartle Burning in West Witton, Yorkshire. I didn't know Hurling, or a variant of it, started in Devon/Cornwall. I didn't know we had an Armada Day (19th July).

Better documented staples find a place, as you might expect, including Mumming (Christmas), Shrove Tuesday and Bonfire Night (a near miss we lament to this day as a nation still run by debauched scotchmen).

The Bonfire Night (5th November) procession at Lewes is the best known in England and should be seen by everyone at least once. Here the book comes into its own, using a particularly dramatic half-page colour print which actually enhances the writing rather just complementing it.

This fabulously mediaeval spectacle may not be to everyone's taste. I remember a delightful young American exchange student of my acquaintance, fascinated as a Catholic to hear of the goings-on in darkest Sussex, returning to college ashen-faced and barely able to speak as a consequence of what she'd seen the night before. May God bless the good and true English people of that lovely county. No Popery! [;-)]

Here then is true 'diversity', and if as a result the English slightly mystify the average outsider let us be sensible enough to celebrate this difference with as much enthusiasm as we reserve for what we hold in common. I thought to, if only by pushing the boat out and buying this in its hardcover edition. Roud's earlier collaboration with Jacqueline Simpson, a Dictionary of English Folklore, impressed me. I felt I couldn't lose.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the book at a colour plate of irish pipers swaggering down an English high street. What in god's name has the irish calendar to do with England's? What has it to do with anything at all that 'irish people living in England' like to celebrate St Patrick's Day?

Roud also includes St Andrews Day, but on a more acceptable ground of parallel English customs not strictly related to scotland's patron saint. St Patrick's Day is not acceptable. If the author had it mind to pander to the American market he should have written a different book.

The explanation for this nonsense lies in the introduction. Here the writer alludes to various institutions responsible for passing on scottish, welsh and irish cultures. His view is that an absence of anything similar in England works to the nation's advantage.

Apparently the English benefit from their culture, their history and their folklore being ignored ('even derided') in that they've avoided the gimmickry and kitsch associated with 'stronger' cultural identities. So that's all right then. But Roud goes further. He is 'proud' the English have '(n)ever taken much notice of St George's Day'. He enjoys this neglect all the more for the annoyance it causes patriots.

Thus an opportunity to defend a national folk culture under repeated attack from, among others, the very ethnicity included in these pages, turns out to exemplify once again that dreary old Orwellian dictum about the English and church poor boxes.

Naturally self-loathing is dressed up as 'good taste'. But Roud is really a snob, like most liberals, with the snob's characteristic scorn for one of the deepest and truest of human emotions - love of homeland and people, and the sympathy it gives for all men everywhere, irrespective of geography, race or culture, whom we know wish for themselves and their nation only what we would bestow upon our own.

It hasn't occurred to him that the ease with which politicians brush aside English public opinion on everything from independence to her unasked for role as milch cow to the union derives solely from the criminally enforced anonymity he prizes.

It doesn't enter his head that this same official contempt is what permitted a publican of eastern European descent, and without fear of prosecution, to erect a sign outside his premises on a recent St George's Day saying 'No English' (this actually happened in Cambridgeshire). Does he even care?

No-one would include St George's Day in a book on the irish year. But St Patrick's Day. isn't the only anomaly. Here we even get Chinese New Year thrown in for good measure. To paraphrase one classicist, 'It's a pretty poem, Mr Roud, but you mustn't call it English'.

Ultimately 'The English Year' is compromised. Ignore 'folklore awards' conferred by the same liberals who pack committees everywhere. A book that might have helped ignorant, deculturalized English children understand something of who they are has instead betrayed them, re-casting English identity to make them accept all that is alien as their own.

I give 'The English Year' two stars because I will not recommend what amounts to a flag-planting exercise for multiculturalism. Expect more 'representative' editions in future, the accent on 'fairness'.

I'm only sorry there wasn't a book-signing. I could have thrown the author thirty pieces of silver. Held in Appleby would have been even more appropriate. To be spat upon affords contempt no greater emphasis, and in this instance is scarcely any viler than the rank betrayal which warrants it.


authoritative and readable, 30 Aug 2007
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.

Thoroughly fascinating, 17 May 2007
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.

Well Worth Reading, 24 Mar 1998
This book was originally published in 1912 under the title "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan".

This Book not only covers Christmas, but Halloween and various Saint's Days.

Mr. Miles does an interesting job of exploring the lore behind Christmas breads and cakes, the Yule log, decorating, and the Christmas Dramas of Europe and the British Isles, earlier this century.

A quaint Northumberland ritual utilizing Holly leaves is presented from page 275 of this work:

"....Nine leaves are taken up and tied with nine knots into a
"handkerchief, and put under the pillow by a person who
"desires prophetic dreams.
"For this purpose smooth leaves (without prickles)
"must be employed...."
The next sentence informs us that "holly is hated by witches"....

A twist on the familiar "Kissing under the Mistletoe" is given on the previous page, and we are informed that after each kiss, the boy removes a berry from the bough, and "when the berries were all picked, the privilege ceased."

You will also find a scattering of black and white reproductions of paintings, a wonderfully etched reproduction of Albreht Durer's "Madonna and Child", as well as a bibliography, notes and an index.

This book is well worth it's modest price.

Good fun! , 18 Apr 2008
I bought this book when I was planning my wedding and it was a great help.
It deals with everything you would need in order to form a medieval celebration from the costume, food, music and decorations. I highly recommend this book!


A good book about special events in Australia, 05 Jul 2001
I quite liked this book which is well laid out and has good diagrams and charts. It contains lots of useful information about special events, but what is not obvious from the cover is that is very orientated towards Australia. There are number of good case studies about Australian events, but you have to draw your own conclusions about how to use the material if you are somewhere else.

The book is quite easy to follow and is not at all heavy-duty or hard going. However, it doesn't go into too much depth about the events business itself, and as a student, that would have been useful for me. Also the book doesn't encourage you to look elsewhere for material, unlike the one by Shone (A) and Parry (B) (which suggests things like weblinks).

Overall, this is a good book, but it has a few drawbacks for non Australian users, even though you can adapt a lot of the material, especially the general techniques and approaches to whatever event you yourself are organising. Having said that I thought it was much more useful than the books by Goldblatt (JJ) which tend to be very descriptive.

Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

a very useful book, 05 Sep 2005
this delightful books is a great resource for celebrating festivals with children and plently of lovely craft ideas and activities for all ages. A must have if your interested in the Steiner education approach. We use this all the time at home to shape our celebrations of the seasons.

Hilarious, 21 Dec 2008
This is the sort of book that you will lend to someone at work, only to have to buy it again when they fail to return it (because they want to keep it). It's hilarious, so don't read it on the bus or train unless you want the other passengers to think you are having a seizure.

Laughter is assured as Harry explores up north, 07 Feb 2003
It is only natural that Pearson is compared to Bryson (from the front cover to the reviews). Insofar as this encourages you to buy the book, one can only confirm the similarities. I would rather prefer it to the early Bryson, as it concentrates more on people and their foibles (as well as sheep) than on book-learning. Pearson interweaves his research inobtrusively, and the book is clearly written by one who has travelled around the north of Britain's fairs and farms, and then done some homework in the library (and not the other way round like the more recent Brysons). This book will make you laugh out loud, whilst inspiring sympathy and interest in ways of life gone by. This book will age well, and the fact that it was written a few years ago is irrelevant. It is in my view an outstanding book, and it is a shame that probably most of its readers were football fans who have read his other books. This deserves a much wider audience. Buy it from amazon. You will not be disappointed. (and once you have read it, come back to the website and give this review a positive review, because I am right! If you hate the book, then a negative is in order. But you won't)

Prepare to chortle loudly on the train, 17 Sep 2002
Bill Bryson eat your heart out. Dry, incisive, irreverent and littered with wildly off-topic rants/ancedotes on everything from cinder toffee to psychotic sheep. A bit of history on the origins of English country fairs, mixed with wry observations on regional eccentricities. Please write more Mr pearson!

Funny and well informed, 25 Jul 2001
I first heard excerpts from this on Radio 4 in about 1997. I had to buy it after that, even after what he said about the West Riding. Harry Pearson tells us the history of Northern fairs and describes his visits to a number of them. If you like Bill Bryson you should enjoy this.

A hilarious journey through the northern countryside, 17 Jun 2001
This tape takes the listener across the countryside of northern England, in a journey where present day social commentary is linked back to the historical origins of the country fairs. The author carries the listener along with his unique brand of English humour. The descriptions of people and events strike a chord. At last an audio tape to rival those of Bill Bryson.

Flag-planting for the Multicult, 23 Oct 2008
I applaud 'Steve' Roud for a compilation breathtaking in its scope and eye-catching in its layout and attention to detail. I condemn him for including material - cynically I believe - with no connection whatever to the English year, and but for which this might have an excellent book.

Excellent it isn't, in spite of good writing, first-class illustrations (many in colour), and entries commendably devoid of the brevity - sometimes no more than a paragraph or two for obsolete festivals - which frequently blights publications of this kind.

Highlights are many nevertheless. There is the Ashen Faggot of Devon (don't ask), Whipping Toms in Leicester (it would take too long), the alarmingly un-PC Bacup Coco-Nut Dancers and the Appleby Horse Fayre (a timeless cultural highlight in which people on social security dress up as 'Travellers' to while away the Employment Office lunch-hour in spitting on each others' hands, muttering dark oaths and arguing about which bet to place on the 3.20 at Kempton).

Ploughboy and Ploughmaid processions feature down in Fen Country. There is 'Bawming' the Thorn in the Cheshire village of Appleton. There is Bartle Burning in West Witton, Yorkshire. I didn't know Hurling, or a variant of it, started in Devon/Cornwall. I didn't know we had an Armada Day (19th July).

Better documented staples find a place, as you might expect, including Mumming (Christmas), Shrove Tuesday and Bonfire Night (a near miss we lament to this day as a nation still run by debauched scotchmen).

The Bonfire Night (5th November) procession at Lewes is the best known in England and should be seen by everyone at least once. Here the book comes into its own, using a particularly dramatic half-page colour print which actually enhances the writing rather just complementing it.

This fabulously mediaeval spectacle may not be to everyone's taste. I remember a delightful young American exchange student of my acquaintance, fascinated as a Catholic to hear of the goings-on in darkest Sussex, returning to college ashen-faced and barely able to speak as a consequence of what she'd seen the night before. May God bless the good and true English people of that lovely county. No Popery! [;-)]

Here then is true 'diversity', and if as a result the English slightly mystify the average outsider let us be sensible enough to celebrate this difference with as much enthusiasm as we reserve for what we hold in common. I thought to, if only by pushing the boat out and buying this in its hardcover edition. Roud's earlier collaboration with Jacqueline Simpson, a Dictionary of English Folklore, impressed me. I felt I couldn't lose.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the book at a colour plate of irish pipers swaggering down an English high street. What in god's name has the irish calendar to do with England's? What has it to do with anything at all that 'irish people living in England' like to celebrate St Patrick's Day?

Roud also includes St Andrews Day, but on a more acceptable ground of parallel English customs not strictly related to scotland's patron saint. St Patrick's Day is not acceptable. If the author had it mind to pander to the American market he should have written a different book.

The explanation for this nonsense lies in the introduction. Here the writer alludes to various institutions responsible for passing on scottish, welsh and irish cultures. His view is that an absence of anything similar in England works to the nation's advantage.

Apparently the English benefit from their culture, their history and their folklore being ignored ('even derided') in that they've avoided the gimmickry and kitsch associated with 'stronger' cultural identities. So that's all right then. But Roud goes further. He is 'proud' the English have '(n)ever taken much notice of St George's Day'. He enjoys this neglect all the more for the annoyance it causes patriots.

Thus an opportunity to defend a national folk culture under repeated attack from, among others, the very ethnicity included in these pages, turns out to exemplify once again that dreary old Orwellian dictum about the English and church poor boxes.

Naturally self-loathing is dressed up as 'good taste'. But Roud is really a snob, like most liberals, with the snob's characteristic scorn for one of the deepest and truest of human emotions - love of homeland and people, and the sympathy it gives for all men everywhere, irrespective of geography, race or culture, whom we know wish for themselves and their nation only what we would bestow upon our own.

It hasn't occurred to him that the ease with which politicians brush aside English public opinion on everything from independence to her unasked for role as milch cow to the union derives solely from the criminally enforced anonymity he prizes.

It doesn't enter his head that this same official contempt is what permitted a publican of eastern European descent, and without fear of prosecution, to erect a sign outside his premises on a recent St George's Day saying 'No English' (this actually happened in Cambridgeshire). Does he even care?

No-one would include St George's Day in a book on the irish year. But St Patrick's Day. isn't the only anomaly. Here we even get Chinese New Year thrown in for good measure. To paraphrase one classicist, 'It's a pretty poem, Mr Roud, but you mustn't call it English'.

Ultimately 'The English Year' is compromised. Ignore 'folklore awards' conferred by the same liberals who pack committees everywhere. A book that might have helped ignorant, deculturalized English children understand something of who they are has instead betrayed them, re-casting English identity to make them accept all that is alien as their own.

I give 'The English Year' two stars because I will not recommend what amounts to a flag-planting exercise for multiculturalism. Expect more 'representative' editions in future, the accent on 'fairness'.

I'm only sorry there wasn't a book-signing. I could have thrown the author thirty pieces of silver. Held in Appleby would have been even more appropriate. To be spat upon affords contempt no greater emphasis, and in this instance is scarcely any viler than the rank betrayal which warrants it.


authoritative and readable, 30 Aug 2007
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.

Thoroughly fascinating, 17 May 2007
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.

Well Worth Reading, 24 Mar 1998
This book was originally published in 1912 under the title "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan".

This Book not only covers Christmas, but Halloween and various Saint's Days.

Mr. Miles does an interesting job of exploring the lore behind Christmas breads and cakes, the Yule log, decorating, and the Christmas Dramas of Europe and the British Isles, earlier this century.

A quaint Northumberland ritual utilizing Holly leaves is presented from page 275 of this work:

"....Nine leaves are taken up and tied with nine knots into a
"handkerchief, and put under the pillow by a person who
"desires prophetic dreams.
"For this purpose smooth leaves (without prickles)
"must be employed...."
The next sentence informs us that "holly is hated by witches"....

A twist on the familiar "Kissing under the Mistletoe" is given on the previous page, and we are informed that after each kiss, the boy removes a berry from the bough, and "when the berries were all picked, the privilege ceased."

You will also find a scattering of black and white reproductions of paintings, a wonderfully etched reproduction of Albreht Durer's "Madonna and Child", as well as a bibliography, notes and an index.

This book is well worth it's modest price.

Good fun! , 18 Apr 2008
I bought this book when I was planning my wedding and it was a great help.
It deals with everything you would need in order to form a medieval celebration from the costume, food, music and decorations. I highly recommend this book!


A good book about special events in Australia, 05 Jul 2001
I quite liked this book which is well laid out and has good diagrams and charts. It contains lots of useful information about special events, but what is not obvious from the cover is that is very orientated towards Australia. There are number of good case studies about Australian events, but you have to draw your own conclusions about how to use the material if you are somewhere else.

The book is quite easy to follow and is not at all heavy-duty or hard going. However, it doesn't go into too much depth about the events business itself, and as a student, that would have been useful for me. Also the book doesn't encourage you to look elsewhere for material, unlike the one by Shone (A) and Parry (B) (which suggests things like weblinks).

Overall, this is a good book, but it has a few drawbacks for non Australian users, even though you can adapt a lot of the material, especially the general techniques and approaches to whatever event you yourself are organising. Having said that I thought it was much more useful than the books by Goldblatt (JJ) which tend to be very descriptive.

Not flippant but interesting, 04 Jan 2005
This isn't quite your usual light-hearted stocking-filler. At first I wondered if I'd made a mistake in buying it, but the initial 'heaviness' wears off and you can get quite interested.

For example :
* by considering what to do about an unwanted gift, you get to consider the views of Kant & Mill.
* whether there is a God, and whether God is Good or Evil, takes us through the thoughts of Hume.
* Peace on Earth and whether War is Just brings us to St Thomas Aquinas.

The role of Tradition and Religious Faiths bring us to a close with a very thoughtful discussion on whether we've lost our sense of Community, and whether Christmas should be used by all, non-Christian as well as Christian, as one of the few remaining common Traditions to bring us back together.

A Christmas Cracker, 04 Jan 2005
A satisfying seasonal stroll through an assortment of philosophical conundrums. The varied traditions of Christmas, both secular and religious, are taken as a starting point to uncover a series of surprisingly deep moral questions. These range from how charitable should we be (much more) to whether we should eat turkeys (probably not). Hobbes, Hume, Mill, Kant, Pascal, Wittgenstein and others are drawn into the debate, but the tone is kept light and accessible by Christmas-themed examples and stories. Religious aspects are handled particularly deftly, the author taking a sceptical/humanistic but sympathetic approach to the meanings given to peace, faith, miracles, tradition and God. Will at least liven up your after-dinner family arguments and probably leave you eager to explore the issues more.

another cracker, 14 Jan 2004
I was already a big fan of Law's books (especially The Philosophy Gym)and this didn't disappoint. The Xmas Files is very entertaining. It also gets you thinking about the kind of stuff that usually just passes us by. All fourteen chapters are short, breezy reads. Some are intended as bit of fun, like "The Santa Claus puzzle" in which Law appears to prove that Santa exists. But others, despite the wry humour, are surprisingly illuminating (especially "wrapping the presents" which really made me think). Some are even touching ("Christmas card kitsch"). Law may be cashing in on the Xmas theme, but make no mistake this is a genuinely insightful book written by a real philosopher.

Thoughtful but a little disappointing, 12 Jan 2004
I came to this book wih high expectations, as someone who has a degree in Philosphy and is a keen student of Christmas. The book does raise some serious questions but in the end it was too slight to get me excited.

The book explores issues relating to the moral questions of Christmas - should we give all we have to the poor? Could Jesus really be God and human? In truth he uses Christmas a peg to hang many questions on that have little to do with Christmas. His treatment of the questions is thoughtful but rarely does more than scratch the surface.

As an introduction to moral philosphy the book is fine, and the Christmas hook may draw some people in, but I wanted more from the book than it was able to deliver.

Wayne Clarke, Liverpool

Useful ideas and information on multi cultural festivals., 09 Mar 2000
A book full of colourful stories, recipes and practical ideas which are fun to use at home and at school. It covers festivals from six different, major world faiths and ten varied cultures. A book to inform and help to bridge the divide between the different and unusual. Festivals Together will gently help to overcome predudice based on ignorance by encouraging discussion when adults and children share the stories and activities together.

a very useful book, 05 Sep 2005
this delightful books is a great resource for celebrating festivals with children and plently of lovely craft ideas and activities for all ages. A must have if your interested in the Steiner education approach. We use this all the time at home to shape our celebrations of the seasons.

Hilarious, 21 Dec 2008
This is the sort of book that you will lend to someone at work, only to have to buy it again when they fail to return it (because they want to keep it). It's hilarious, so don't read it on the bus or train unless you want the other passengers to think you are having a seizure.

Laughter is assured as Harry explores up north, 07 Feb 2003
It is only natural that Pearson is compared to Bryson (from the front cover to the reviews). Insofar as this encourages you to buy the book, one can only confirm the similarities. I would rather prefer it to the early Bryson, as it concentrates more on people and their foibles (as well as sheep) than on book-learning. Pearson interweaves his research inobtrusively, and the book is clearly written by one who has travelled around the north of Britain's fairs and farms, and then done some homework in the library (and not the other way round like the more recent Brysons). This book will make you laugh out loud, whilst inspiring sympathy and interest in ways of life gone by. This book will age well, and the fact that it was written a few years ago is irrelevant. It is in my view an outstanding book, and it is a shame that probably most of its readers were football fans who have read his other books. This deserves a much wider audience. Buy it from amazon. You will not be disappointed. (and once you have read it, come back to the website and give this review a positive review, because I am right! If you hate the book, then a negative is in order. But you won't)

Prepare to chortle loudly on the train, 17 Sep 2002
Bill Bryson eat your heart out. Dry, incisive, irreverent and littered with wildly off-topic rants/ancedotes on everything from cinder toffee to psychotic sheep. A bit of history on the origins of English country fairs, mixed with wry observations on regional eccentricities. Please write more Mr pearson!

Funny and well informed, 25 Jul 2001
I first heard excerpts from this on Radio 4 in about 1997. I had to buy it after that, even after what he said about the West Riding. Harry Pearson tells us the history of Northern fairs and describes his visits to a number of them. If you like Bill Bryson you should enjoy this.

A hilarious journey through the northern countryside, 17 Jun 2001
This tape takes the listener across the countryside of northern England, in a journey where present day social commentary is linked back to the historical origins of the country fairs. The author carries the listener along with his unique brand of English humour. The descriptions of people and events strike a chord. At last an audio tape to rival those of Bill Bryson.

Flag-planting for the Multicult, 23 Oct 2008
I applaud 'Steve' Roud for a compilation breathtaking in its scope and eye-catching in its layout and attention to detail. I condemn him for including material - cynically I believe - with no connection whatever to the English year, and but for which this might have an excellent book.

Excellent it isn't, in spite of good writing, first-class illustrations (many in colour), and entries commendably devoid of the brevity - sometimes no more than a paragraph or two for obsolete festivals - which frequently blights publications of this kind.

Highlights are many nevertheless. There is the Ashen Faggot of Devon (don't ask), Whipping Toms in Leicester (it would take too long), the alarmingly un-PC Bacup Coco-Nut Dancers and the Appleby Horse Fayre (a timeless cultural highlight in which people on social security dress up as 'Travellers' to while away the Employment Office lunch-hour in spitting on each others' hands, muttering dark oaths and arguing about which bet to place on the 3.20 at Kempton).

Ploughboy and Ploughmaid processions feature down in Fen Country. There is 'Bawming' the Thorn in the Cheshire village of Appleton. There is Bartle Burning in West Witton, Yorkshire. I didn't know Hurling, or a variant of it, started in Devon/Cornwall. I didn't know we had an Armada Day (19th July).

Better documented staples find a place, as you might expect, including Mumming (Christmas), Shrove Tuesday and Bonfire Night (a near miss we lament to this day as a nation still run by debauched scotchmen).

The Bonfire Night (5th November) procession at Lewes is the best known in England and should be seen by everyone at least once. Here the book comes into its own, using a particularly dramatic half-page colour print which actually enhances the writing rather just complementing it.

This fabulously mediaeval spectacle may not be to everyone's taste. I remember a delightful young American exchange student of my acquaintance, fascinated as a Catholic to hear of the goings-on in darkest Sussex, returning to college ashen-faced and barely able to speak as a consequence of what she'd seen the night before. May God bless the good and true English people of that lovely county. No Popery! [;-)]

Here then is true 'diversity', and if as a result the English slightly mystify the average outsider let us be sensible enough to celebrate this difference with as much enthusiasm as we reserve for what we hold in common. I thought to, if only by pushing the boat out and buying this in its hardcover edition. Roud's earlier collaboration with Jacqueline Simpson, a Dictionary of English Folklore, impressed me. I felt I couldn't lose.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the book at a colour plate of irish pipers swaggering down an English high street. What in god's name has the irish calendar to do with England's? What has it to do with anything at all that 'irish people living in England' like to celebrate St Patrick's Day?

Roud also includes St Andrews Day, but on a more acceptable ground of parallel English customs not strictly related to scotland's patron saint. St Patrick's Day is not acceptable. If the author had it mind to pander to the American market he should have written a different book.

The explanation for this nonsense lies in the introduction. Here the writer alludes to various institutions responsible for passing on scottish, welsh and irish cultures. His view is that an absence of anything similar in England works to the nation's advantage.

Apparently the English benefit from their culture, their history and their folklore being ignored ('even derided') in that they've avoided the gimmickry and kitsch associated with 'stronger' cultural identities. So that's all right then. But Roud goes further. He is 'proud' the English have '(n)ever taken much notice of St George's Day'. He enjoys this neglect all the more for the annoyance it causes patriots.

Thus an opportunity to defend a national folk culture under repeated attack from, among others, the very ethnicity included in these pages, turns out to exemplify once again that dreary old Orwellian dictum about the English and church poor boxes.

Naturally self-loathing is dressed up as 'good taste'. But Roud is really a snob, like most liberals, with the snob's characteristic scorn for one of the deepest and truest of human emotions - love of homeland and people, and the sympathy it gives for all men everywhere, irrespective of geography, race or culture, whom we know wish for themselves and their nation only what we would bestow upon our own.

It hasn't occurred to him that the ease with which politicians brush aside English public opinion on everything from independence to her unasked for role as milch cow to the union derives solely from the criminally enforced anonymity he prizes.

It doesn't enter his head that this same official contempt is what permitted a publican of eastern European descent, and without fear of prosecution, to erect a sign outside his premises on a recent St George's Day saying 'No English' (this actually happened in Cambridgeshire). Does he even care?

No-one would include St George's Day in a book on the irish year. But St Patrick's Day. isn't the only anomaly. Here we even get Chinese New Year thrown in for good measure. To paraphrase one classicist, 'It's a pretty poem, Mr Roud, but you mustn't call it English'.

Ultimately 'The English Year' is compromised. Ignore 'folklore awards' conferred by the same liberals who pack committees everywhere. A book that might have helped ignorant, deculturalized English children understand something of who they are has instead betrayed them, re-casting English identity to make them accept all that is alien as their own.

I give 'The English Year' two stars because I will not recommend what amounts to a flag-planting exercise for multiculturalism. Expect more 'representative' editions in future, the accent on 'fairness'.

I'm only sorry there wasn't a book-signing. I could have thrown the author thirty pieces of silver. Held in Appleby would have been even more appropriate. To be spat upon affords contempt no greater emphasis, and in this instance is scarcely any viler than the rank betrayal which warrants it.


authoritative and readable, 30 Aug 2007
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.

Thoroughly fascinating, 17 May 2007
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.

Well Worth Reading, 24 Mar 1998
This book was originally published in 1912 under the title "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan".

This Book not only covers Christmas, but Halloween and various Saint's Days.

Mr. Miles does an interesting job of exploring the lore behind Christmas breads and cakes, the Yule log, decorating, and the Christmas Dramas of Europe and the British Isles, earlier this century.

A quaint Northumberland ritual utilizing Holly leaves is presented from page 275 of this work:

"....Nine leaves are taken up and tied with nine knots into a
"handkerchief, and put under the pillow by a person who
"desires prophetic dreams.
"For this purpose smooth leaves (without prickles)
"must be employed...."
The next sentence informs us that "holly is hated by witches"....

A twist on the familiar "Kissing under the Mistletoe" is given on the previous page, and we are informed that after each kiss, the boy removes a berry from the bough, and "when the berries were all picked, the privilege ceased."

You will also find a scattering of black and white reproductions of paintings, a wonderfully etched reproduction of Albreht Durer's "Madonna and Child", as well as a bibliography, notes and an index.

This book is well worth it's modest price.

Good fun! , 18 Apr 2008
I bought this book when I was planning my wedding and it was a great help.
It deals with everything you would need in order to form a medieval celebration from the costume, food, music and decorations. I highly recommend this book!


A good book about special events in Australia, 05 Jul 2001
I quite liked this book which is well laid out and has good diagrams and charts. It contains lots of useful information about special events, but what is not obvious from the cover is that is very orientated towards Australia. There are number of good case studies about Australian events, but you have to draw your own conclusions about how to use the material if you are somewhere else.

The book is quite easy to follow and is not at all heavy-duty or hard going. However, it doesn't go into too much depth about the events business itself, and as a student, that would have been useful for me. Also the book doesn't encourage you to look elsewhere for material, unlike the one by Shone (A) and Parry (B) (which suggests things like weblinks).

Overall, this is a good book, but it has a few drawbacks for non Australian users, even though you can adapt a lot of the material, especially the general techniques and approaches to whatever event you yourself are organising. Having said that I thought it was much more useful than the books by Goldblatt (JJ) which tend to be very descriptive.

Not flippant but interesting, 04 Jan 2005
This isn't quite your usual light-hearted stocking-filler. At first I wondered if I'd made a mistake in buying it, but the initial 'heaviness' wears off and you can get quite interested.

For example :
* by considering what to do about an unwanted gift,