2010 Release: London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World's Most Vibrant City (Paperback)





London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World's Most Vibrant City (Paperback)

UK release Date: April 1, 2010

SYNOPSIS:  Few places are so steeped in folklore as London, a city with almost as many ancient legends and deep-rooted customs as it has streets and landmarks. In London Lore leading folklorist Steve Roud brings together an astonishingly rich selection of stories about fabled events, heroes and villains, tales of ghosts and witches, and accounts of local supersitions and beliefs. His range extends right across the capital, from Hampstead in the north, where wild beasts were once thought to roam the sewers, to Anerley Wood in the south, haunt of the much feared Norwood Gypsies, and from Hounslow Heath with its notorious highwaymen to Bethnal Green, long associated with Earl Henry de Montfort, better known as the Blind Beggar.

But London Lore does more than simply retell these stories and traditions; it also delves through layers of hearsay and speculation to investigate how and why they arose in the first place. In the process, it shows how the familiar story of Dick Whittington and his cat has connections with the ancient Middle East. It explains why lions rather than ravens at the Tower of London were once felt to be inextricably bound up with the city’s fate. It pinpoints precisely where the story of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, was first recorded. And it explores the origins of the once widespread custom of handing out ‘farthing bundles’ of ribbons, buttons and beads to poor children in the East End. Some of these stories and beliefs are shown to have their origins in actual historical events; others to have stemmed from contemporary preoccupations and fears. What they all reveal is the powerful hold that London has exerted on the popular imagination over the centuries, as each successive generation has reshaped existing tales and added new ones of its own.

Pre-order at the PTTP Amazon Store!




Share/Save/Bookmark

2 comments:

  1. Good day to you! I love these kind of books!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like these kinds of books too because there is almost always a good story about things you find in a city, or the back stories of how cities came to be. Especially London, so steeped in history and so darn old.
    Thanks for the heads up.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 

Passages to the Past
All rights reserved © 2013

Custom Blog Design by Blogger Boutique

Blogger Boutique