This broad-based collection of essays is an introduction both to the concerns of contemporary folklore scholarship and to the variety of forms that folk performance has taken throughout English history.

Introduction. - Peter Harrop & Steve Roud; Part l: Folk Drama, Theatre and Performance.; Part l Introduction. - Peter Harrop; Chapter 1: Towards an anatomy of English customary drama: theatre, stage, play. - Thomas Pettitt.; Chapter 2: Performing calendrical pressures: Shrovetide processions and shroving perambulations in premodern England. - Taylor Aucoin.; Chapter 3: Robin Hood folk-performance in fifteenth and sixteenth-century England. - John Marshall.; Chapter 4: Alongside the mummers' plays: customary elements in amateur and semi-professional theatre 1730 - 1850. - Peter Harrop.; Chapter 5: The Alderley Mummers' Play: A story of longevity. - Duncan Broomhead; Chapter 6: A performance bestiary. - Mike Pearson.; Chapter 7: Performing community: village life and the spectacle of worship in the work of Charles Marson. - Katie Palmer Heathman.; Chapter 8: Boxing Day Fancy Dress in Wigan. - Anna F C Smith; Part ll: Folk Dance.; Part ll Introduction. - Peter Harrop; Chapter 9: Merry Neets and Bridewains: contemporary commentaries on folk music, dance, and song in the Lake Counties during the Romantic period. - Sue Allan; Chapter 10: Sword Dancing in England: Texts and sources from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. - Stephen D Corrsin; Chapter 11: From Country Gardens to British Festivals: The Morris Dance Revival, 1886 - 1951. - Matt Simons; Chapter 12: The English Country Dance, Cecil Sharp and Authenticity. - Derek Schofield; Chapter 13: Douglas Kennedy and Folk Dance in English Schools. - Chloe Middleton-Metcalfe.; Chapter 14: Fancy Footwork: Reviewing the English Clog and Step Dance Revival. - Alex Fisher.; Chapter 15: Expanding a Repertoire: Leicester Morrismen and the Border Morris. - John Swift.; Chapter 16: Dancing with tradition: clog, step and short sword rapper in the twenty first century. - Libby Worth; Chapter 17: 'Sequins, bows and pointed toes': Girls' carnival morris - the 'other' morris dancing community. - Lucy Wright; Part lll: Folk Song and Music.; Part lll Introduction. - Steve Roud; Chapter 18: Recrafting Love and Murder: Print and Memory in the Mediation of a Murdered Sweetheart Ballad. - Thomas Pettitt; Chapter 19: Burlesquing the Ballad. - Steve Gardham; Chapter 20: The Rise and Fall of the West Gallery: popular religious music in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. - Vic Gammon; Chapter 21: The Drive for English Identity in Music and the Foundation of the Folk-Song Society. - Arthur Knevett; Chapter 22: 'No Art More Dangerous' - Eve Maxwell-Lyte and Folk Song. - Martin Graebe; Chapter 23: Creativity versus Authenticity in the English folksong revival. - Brian Peters; Chapter 24: Folk Choirs: Their Origins and Contribution to the Living Tradition. - Paul Wilson & Marilyn Tucker; Chapter 25: 'Past Performances on Paper' - A Case Study of The Manuscript Tunebook of Thomas Hampton - Rebecca Dellow; Chapter 26: The Performers in the Playground: Children's Musical Practices in Play. - Julia Bishop