Have now got the aforementioned Christmas presents.
I can't wait for all the festivities and cooking duties to be out of the way so I can immerse myself into these two books. The best Christmas present ever!
Many thanks to Malcolm and everyone who contributed to the re-issue, long overdue.
My old Penguin book will still be used, but only because I won't want to scribble all over the new one like I did with the old one. The new one has biographical information about the song-carriers who contributed the songs. It also has much more extensive information about the texts - just one example, Lord Thomas & Lady Eleanor, contributed by Mrs Pond - there is at least as much information again printed about the text and its origins which was not included in the original volume.I now want to see all the CJS and Hammond texts that were used to compile this song - which has been in my repertoire for years, and which my children grew up with as one of their favourite songs.