The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #65377   Message #1097533
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
20-Jan-04 - 10:59 PM
Thread Name: Classic English (Penguin) Folk Songs re-issued
Subject: RE: Penguin Folk Songs re-issued
I've been asked to mention that the charge for postage and packing is now £2.00; it turns out that £1.50 was a pre-Christmas offer. There's now a review at  Musical Traditions:

Classic English Folk Songs

Rod Stradling has some (perfectly reasonable) reservations about the way we approached the revision, but 'restoring' the texts to their unmediated forms and quoting all the material on which Bert Lloyd drew for his modifications would have, at a conservative estimate, more than doubled the size of the book; it simply wasn't an option. I can't expect anyone who hasn't spent several months exploring all the background (I may be the only person who has done this in recent years) to appreciate the extent of it all.

On the whole, Rod approves of the material I've added (if not of my introduction, which was always likely to fall a bit uncomfortably between two or more stools, aimed as it was both at new readers and at people long since familiar with 'Penguin', some of whom will also be aware of at least some of the editorial issues involved) and of David Atkinson's new bibliography. I value Rod's opinion, and am rather relieved that I got off so lightly, and that he recommends it as "an essential purchase". Couldn't reasonably ask for more.