Description
What is a tradition? How does folklore develop? Who do we thank for collecting this stuff? And what about ‘fake-lore’?
This riveting book takes a deep dive into the world of Yorkshire folklore and traditions, and discovers the stories and people behind them.
Covering the whole of the great county, and every day of the year, this is a history-based approach that goes beyond simply listing what happened in the past. Catherine traces origins, examines beliefs, and in doing so, has created a book that is as entertaining as it is revealing.
This is popular community culture at its very best.
- Author: Catherine Warr
- Imprint: Palatine Books
- ISBN: 978-1-910837-44-3
- Binding: paperback
- Format: 210 x 170 mm
- Extent: 288 pages
- Illustrations: 200+
- Publication date: 20 May 2023
Colin Speakman –
Catherine Warr is a young Leeds historian and animateur whose first book A Yorkshire Year (Palatine Books/Carnegie) is a delight.
It’s a compendium, miscellany, anthology of fascinating facts, stories, legends, customs, myths, poems and recipes about Yorkshire, organised not in the conventional way, by chapters, but by the days and months of the year.
So it becomes the perfect bedside browser. Whatever day of the year it is, Catherine has something for you, usually, but not always, to relate to that day.
Some entries are a mere three lines. Others three pages. There’s a lot of folklore, retelling of old tales: some very familiar, such as the Richmond Drummer Boy or The White Doe of Rylstone; others quite rare, such as the dragon or worm of Saxhow or the wild boar of Cliffe Wood in Bradford, the latter said to be the boar without a tongue to be found of Bradford’s coat of arms. In between are snippets of history, facts and curios such as Bedale’s Leech House or England’s tallest man, William Bradley of Market Weighton.
The book is beautifully produced and illustrated, with some amazing prints, drawings and photographs. It’s a book to dip into, a rich cornucopia of facts and fantasy.
With its many excellent illustrations, this is also a book which would make an ideal Christmas present for that aunt in Australia or uncle in Canada to remind them of the rich history and culture of their forefathers.
Read the full review by Colin Speakman in History and Heritage Yorkshire (September 2023).