The Faber Book of Christmas - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571174418 ISBN 13: 9780571174416

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 1999

Synopsis

Like it or loathe it, the world's greatest religious festival is far more than the traditional package (largely invented by the Victorians) of Christmas trees, cards, decorations and stockings hung out for Santa Claus. It has a long history, with roots in a variety of pagan cultures, and legends from around the world. These, with its Christian bedrock in the gospel accounts of the Nativity, are well represented in this anthology, along with accounts of Christmas spent in climatic extremes and under a wide range of circumstances. From commercial kitsch in Japan and cricketing Christmases in Australia to cannibalism on the nineteenth-century American emigrant trail and forced carol singing in a German concentration camp, Simon Rae's book is full of intriguing and challenging surprises.

About this title

About the Author

Simon Rae's award-winning W. G. Grace: A Life received widespread acclaim on its publication in 1998. He has also edited a number of anthologies, and for five years presented BBC Radio 4's 'Poetry Please!'. For nearly ten years he wrote regular topical poems for the Guardian and published two collections of them, Soft Targets and Rapid Response. He collaborated with Ronald Searle on a book of cartoons and poems, The Face of War, and in 1999 he won the National Poetry Prize. His first stage play, A Quiet Night In, was produced in Bristol and London the same year. In 1999/2000 he was poet in residence with Warwickshire County Cricket Club and MAC at Edgbaston, and he was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Warwick University for 2000/2001.

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571174418
• ISBN 13: 9780571174416
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448
• Editor: Rae Simon