Maypoles to Mistletoe
By Martyn Wyndham-Read and Chris Brown

With music transcriptions by Iris Bishop, contributions by Jim Farr and illustrated by Danni Wyndham-Read, Mary Kent and Helen Brown.

“Featuring some of Sussex’s finest singers, dancers, musicians and storytellers Maypoles to Mistletoe has been performed annually for 36 years. This heartwarming show is a colourful journey – in music, story, dance and song – through the traditional calendar customs of England – from Candlemas to Christmas, via May Day and Hallowe’en.”
Lawrence Heath.

‘Maypoles to Mistletoe’ originated from an idea of Martyn’s to present a folk show with a narrator putting the songs into a sequence and a context. 

After early encouragement for the concept in discussions with Nic Jones and Dave and Toni Arthur the show first appeared at Tilgate, Crawley, Sussex,  in 1971 as a local community project with dance, words and songs. Since then it has expanded, travelled from Whitby to Truro in various forms including workshop developments, been recorded on LP by Bill Leader for the Trailer Label and CD by Jim Ward (Country Branch) and featured on Radio 2. But the at heart of the whole vision is the continuing local annual show now at The Hawth in Crawley and for the last 10 years at The Electric Theatre in Guildford.

Now comes – The Book of The Show.

The book has been created as a mainstay for any proposed production of the show by amateur drama groups, schools or colleges or folk community organisations. The essence has been a need for flexibility so that the 'Maypoles to Mistletoe' concept can be adapted to fit any needs of local timing, requirements and resources and especially to incorporate local customs and traditions. The book includes a newly recorded audio CD of tracks to assist potential producers and made up of material not otherwise available.

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Published by Eprint: to be distributed in early May 2008
A4 size – spiral bound to lay flat in use – copiable – with audio CD £25.00
ISBN-10 1 905637 35 7
ISBN-13 978 1 905637 35 5