Monday 2 December 2013

Six suggested (secular) Christmas readings

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These are my particular favourites - over the years.

1. The description of the feast at Sir Ector's castle in The Sword in the Stone, by TH White.

2. The opening section of Sir Gawain and the Green Night - describing the feast at Camelot.

3. The passages about the carol singers in Cider with Rosie, by Laurie Lee.

4. The carol singers and surrounding parts of The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.

5. A Child's Christmas in Wales (in its several version) by Dylan Thomas.

6. The Father Christmas Letters - by JRR Tolkien.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

For some reason, the Sword in the Stone passage you refer to has been on my mind. I think you've provided the final nudge to go actually read it again.

The Crow said...

No mention of my favourite...
For years I wondered who Good King Wences was, and why he never looked out again after last seeing the poor man.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Crow - I just assumed he had died shortly after the events described.

It's funny how Wences is such a big figure in Prague as to have had the main city square named after him.

Bernard Brandt said...

While my recommendation perhaps comes nearer to music than to readings, may I suggest Ralph Vaughan Williams' Christmas Oratorio, Hodie, principally because of the readings included, ranging from Milton's "Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity" to Thomas Hardy's "The Oxen".

But if readings are all that you would want, I would suggest those two poems, particularly Hardy's.