Karen
Many thanks for your study. Between us on Mudcat we still have enough researchers around on both sides of the pond to come up with almost anything written on the subject so if you lack anything you only need to ask. Much is now available online anyway now thanks to the likes of Google, Gutenberg and many universities. It's not all readily available to us plebs but there are academics here as well who can access it.


If you don't want to join the forum you can always make it clear who you are by following Jim's example and put your name to the post.

Bert was to some extent, in the 50s particularly, of his time. However, any folklorist post WWII, even an amateur, would know the difference between honesty and deceit when it comes to presenting folkloric material. He was blessed for much of his life after 1950 with the title 'scholar'. What he presented as folkloric material was definitely not the work of an honest scholar. Numerous examples have come to light in the last 30 years. What this does in effect with regard to his work is put his whole output under suspicion and if anyone wanted to quote Bert nowadays we would have to go back to earlier sources. There is no getting away from this. Like Kevin I am a great admirer of his creative ability and his contribution, in my eyes, well outweighs the negatives, but if we sweep it under the carpet we do ourselves and the subject a great disservice.