Overview

A fresh and engaging celebration of the customs, places, objects and peoples that make up what we know as 'folk' in Britain. By its nature, folk is ephemeral: tricky to define, hard to preserve and even more difficult to resurrect. But folk culture is all around us; sitting in our churches, swinging from our pubs and dancing through our streets, patiently waiting to be discovered, appreciated, saved and cherished. In The Lost Folk, Lally MacBeth is on a mission to breathe new life into these rapidly disappearing customs. She reminds us that folk is for everyone, and does not belong to an imagined, halcyon past, but is constantly being drawn from everyday lives and communities. As well as looking at what folk customs have meant in Britain's past, she shines a light on what they can and should mean as we move into the future - encouraging us to use the book as an inspiration, and become collectors and creators of our very own folk traditions.

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9780571388301

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Reviews

""The Lost Folk is an exceptionally thoughtful and beautifully written celebration of the creative power that lives and breathes within our communities, in the form of folk art and traditions. And it is a timely reminder that it is incumbent on us to ensure their future."" -- Maxine Peake ""Erudite, questing and endlessly fascinating, this is the book that British folk has long needed. Essential reading."" -- Katherine May ""The Lost Folk is a splendid museum full of strange and wonderful things. Not just a book, an expertly curated assembly of delights."" -- Peter Ross ""A lively, personal and deeply researched account of Folk, ancient, modern and future. Lally Macbeth hunts down, collects, participates in and really cares about the things she writes about, this is the definitive, comprehensive read."" -- Ruth Guilding ""Shows that our folk heritage - past and present - is so much more than Morris Dancing, Cheese Rolling and finger-in-the-ear sea shanties. In this highly readable and personable book packed with fascinating people, places, objects and customs, Lally's breadth of research takes in the origins of model villages, the meaning of being a 'chime child', the history of Mummers' plays, an annual tradition in which clowns paint their faces on eggs and the adventures of the 1930s Surrey-based Ferguson Gang, who secretly raised money for heritage sites at risk of disappearing and sent their 'loot' attached to a live goat!"" -- David Bramwell

Author Information

Lally MacBeth is an artist, writer and curator based in Cornwall. Her work takes in history, folklore, performance, ritual and artifice - and the links between high and low culture. She is the founder of The Folk Archive and co-founder of Stone Club. She has written for Caught by the River, House and Garden, and Hellebore, appeared on BBC Radio 3 and programmed events for the Tate, the British Museum and the ICA, amongst others. The Lost Folk, published by Faber on June 19th, is her first book.

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