The Ritual Year

The pleasure of this book lies in the wonderfully strange Britain it reveals... Beautifully illustrated by Rebecca Warren, this is both an engaging guide to Britain's eccentric rituals and a celebration of the diversity, creativity and continual reinvention that keep a culture alive * Irish Times *
The Ritual Year is an almanac of unexpected information on everything from the origins of jack o'lanterns to the reason iPhones don't have keypads... Though firmly rooted in the past, it isn't stuck there, affording equal weight to Islamic melas as it does to morris dancing... [A] love letter to our country's celebrations * Buzz Magazine *
A wide-ranging collection that shows the variety of traditions still celebrated in these isles * Observer *
A magnificent folkloric feast of a book filled to the brim with joy and wonder. I defy anyone who reads it not to want to get in and amongst the folklore of Britain -- Lally MacBeth, author of The Lost Folk
Fascinating, funny and fabulously folky -- Bryony Kimmings, author of Bog Witch
This is less a guide to "Merlin's Isle of Gramarye" than to the messy, and sometimes contentious business of communities coming together, or pulling apart, in an attempt to a make some noise, have some fun, and assert their right to be -- David Hopkin, Professor of History at the University of Oxford
A wonderfully rich, eccentric and joyful compendium... I loved it -- Nicola Chester