Sandra Billington, "Mock Kings in Medieval Society and Renaissance Drama"
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, ISBN 0-19-811967-4. £65.50
This book is not as recent as titles usually described here, but I make no apologies for that. I have had a copy on my shelves for several years but I was reminded of the work by a donation of a copy from the author to the Traditional Drama Research Group. The title is still in print and should be readily available from most libraries. Whilst the whole book will be of interest to students of early drama, it is the first section which will be of more appeal to folk drama specialists. This section deals with mock kings and lords of misrule in a non-theatrical context, one of popular festivity. Here, Billington discusses these traditions as they are manifested in summer and winter games in addition to their function within peasant rebel and outlaw ‘society’.
Eddie Cass, "J.M. Carpenter, Ethel Rudkin and the Plough Plays of Lincolnshire"
Folk Life, Vol.41, 2002-2003, pp.96-112
This is the text of a paper first given at the annual conference of The Society for Folk Life Studies held at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, September, 2002
Eddie Cass, Michael J. Preston, and Paul Smith "The Peace Egg Book: An Anglo-Irish Chapbook Connection Discovered"
Folklore, Vol.114, No.1, April 2003, pp.29-52
This deals with a chapbook, The Peace Egg Book, printed in Manchester by Robert Carr but which contains a Belfast Christmas Rhime Book text.
Early Theatre, A Journal Associated with the Records of Early English Drama, Vol.6, 2003
This is a special volume subtitled ‘Performance, Politics, and Culture in the Southwest of Britain, 1350-1642. In 1996, REED published its volume on Bristol, the last in the series which covered the southwest and Wales. To mark the event, REED sponsored four sessions at the 1996, Leeds International Medieval Congress. It is the papers from these sessions which form the core of this volume, of which Part 1 has now been published with Part 2 to follow. These papers are required reading for those interested in folk drama in these counties and who wish to contextualise their studies. The area covered is from Cornwall up to Wiltshire and Wales
Rob Francis "Guizing: A local Christmas tradition unmasked!"
Parwich and District Local History Society Newsletter, No.7
Available online at: http://www.parwichhistory.com/Issue%207.htm#guizing.
Copies are available at £1 each from Parwich & District Local History Society, Hallcliffe House, Parwich, Nr. Ashbourne, Derbyshire, DE6 1QA. Paper copies of this particular issue are in short supply.
Joan Jones & Mel Jones, "The Remarkable Gattty Family of Ecclesfield"
Rotherham: Green Tree Publications, 2003. ISBN 0 9521733 5 5. £8.95.
Earlier this year a Gatty Festival was held in Ecclesfield, Sheffield ‘…in honour of the remarkable Victorian family of high achievers who grew up in the village’. This book was published to coincide with the festival. Whilst there is only the briefest of mentions of Mrs Ewing’s The Peace Egg, the book is an essential purchase for anyone with an interest in the Gatty family.
Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh "An Alternative Mummers’ Play from Donegal"
Béoloideas. Vol.70, 2002, pp.199-205.
The paper records the revival of a play at Meevagh whose characters include Hitler, Churchill, Gandhi, Mussolini and De Valera. It includes the script.
Peter Millington "The Truro Cordwainers’ Play: A 'New' Eighteenth-Century Christmas Play"
Folklore, Vol.114, No.1, April 2003, pp.53-73
Millington’s article deals with the text of a play first published by Thurstan Peter who stated that the play was from Mylor, Cornwall. Using biographical information on the actors and an analysis of the manuscript, the author demonstrates that the play was actually from Truro in the late 1780s.
Peter Millington "'This is a Mummers’ play I wrote': Modern compositions and their implications"
'Mumming Traditions in Cross-Border and Cross-Community Contexts', Derry, 9-13 June 2003
Available online at: http://petemillington.uk/modern/
This is an annotated web version of the original Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
Milltown Memories: "Setting the Pace"
Milltown Memories, No.3, Spring 2003
Available online at: http://www.milltownmemories.org.uk/mm3/7.html
Milltown Memories is a new serial publication based in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. This issue has a brief piece on pace-egging along with two photographs from the 1930s. One photograph is of the Midgley School Team; the second is of a group of girls who are holding the team’s hats. There were follow-up letters in Issue No.4. Copies can be purchased from Milltown Memories, 6 Melbourne Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 6AS. Cost, £3 incl. p&p.
Séamas Ó Catháin, "The Irish Hobby Horse and the Icelandic Horse Dance"
in: Séamas Ó Catháin (ed), "Northern Lights. Following Folklore in North-Western Europe. Essays in honour of Bo Almqvist"
Dublin, University College Dublin Press, 2001. ISBN 1 900621 63 0
Tom Pettitt "From Stage to Folk: A Note on the Passages from Addison's Rosamond in the 'Truro' Mummers' Play"
Folklore, Vol.114, No.2, August 2003, pp.262-270
Following Millington’s paper on the Truro play (cited above), this article considers which printed edition of Addison's opera was used by the Truro actors for the inclusions they inserted in their Christmas play.
Stuart Rankin & Chas Marshall, "The Return of the Blue Stots"
Morris Matters, Vol.22, No.2, July 2003
This article updates an earler one in Tykes News of Autumn 1982. We are also told that there is to be a 60 page booklet on the Blue Stots and details will be given in the Forum as soon as we have them.
Percy Youd "Tales from a Sporting Life: Memories of a Mersey man who made his mark"
Northwich, Cheshire, Leonie Press, 2003, ISBN 1-901253-31-7, £8.99 + £1.35 p&p.
The autobiography of Percy Youd (1879-1963). It has a chapter on soul-caking including the text of the Frodsham play, in which he played the 'Old Woman'.