A bard on the wire, a voice in the wilderness, a home page for exiles trying to get home. Everybody is an exile. Maybe artists just realise it. "Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried, in my way, to be free."
Another offering from Doin Different, our not so slim Poppyland volume of folk ballads published in 2015. The long-promised musical album of the book is approaching completion and is scheduled (fingers crossed) for release this Christmas.
Chronicling Norfolk ( and East of England) history from Boudicca and Fiddler's Hill - a haunted bronze age barrow in Binham - to UEA and a contemporary carol at Lynn Minster, the book at this point reaches the (in)famous tale of 'Little Jimmy', The Rector of Stiffkey, the 31st of 39 ballads, a story which gripped the nation at the time and is an emblem of the inter-war battle between the 'Victorian' establishment and the more permissive values of modern times. We hope you like our seaside postcard approach to the subject.
PS 'Victorian' is in scare quotes because the period was actually one of the most progressive in history - the abolition of slavery (its repression enforced by the royal navy), Married Women's Property Act, Universal Manhood suffrage, public sanitation, enormous advances in science and technology etc etc - but yes there was plenty to be progressive about.
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