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Singing Like Larks: A Celebration of Birds in Folk Songs
Birds are beloved for their song and have featured in our own music for centuries. Singing Like Larks opens a rare window onto birdlife, folklore, traditional verse, and song writing, especially in the British Isles. In this charming volume, folklore, verse, and nature writing combine to explore why birds appear in so many folk songs, with song lyrics, history, and anecdotes drawing on a rich heritage. Ornithological folk songs are themselves something of a threatened species. Melodies lost in the passage of time, their lyrics tucked in archives, our awareness of birds, their song and our own traditions must be passed down from one generation to the next. Lifetimes of wisdom are etched into these songs, preserving the natural rhythms of times past and our connection to feathered friends. A treasury of bird-related folk songs, this is also an account of one young nature writer’s journey into the world of folk music, and a joyous celebration of song, the seasons, and our love of birds.
232 pages, Paperback
Published March 23, 2023
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April 22, 2023'Singing Like Larks' is a fascinating exploration of the role of birds (wild and domesticated) in British folk music and rural tradition.
Through each chapter the author deftly navigates both the symbolism surrounding each bird, while also relating this to our modern understanding of their natural history and ecology. The book doesn't rigidly review each bird in terms of music, and spends a large portion of each chapter describing the discovery of the music itself (by song collectors and the author personally) and the lives of the people keeping it alive.
The amount and depth of knowledge conveyed in this book (and by such a young author) is phenomenal - I learnt a huge amount in every single chapter, and will be referring back to it as a resource in the future.
The parallels between the disappearing traditions of rural Britain and the dwindling numbers of once common species of birds are not lost on the author, but this book isn't about “worshiping of ashes". Instead it implores us to seek out the birds and the folksingers of Britain ourselves - to "preserve the flame".
A really impressive book.
Through each chapter the author deftly navigates both the symbolism surrounding each bird, while also relating this to our modern understanding of their natural history and ecology. The book doesn't rigidly review each bird in terms of music, and spends a large portion of each chapter describing the discovery of the music itself (by song collectors and the author personally) and the lives of the people keeping it alive.
The amount and depth of knowledge conveyed in this book (and by such a young author) is phenomenal - I learnt a huge amount in every single chapter, and will be referring back to it as a resource in the future.
The parallels between the disappearing traditions of rural Britain and the dwindling numbers of once common species of birds are not lost on the author, but this book isn't about “worshiping of ashes". Instead it implores us to seek out the birds and the folksingers of Britain ourselves - to "preserve the flame".
A really impressive book.
May 14, 2023
Many thanks to Karen Lloyd for sending me a copy of this new book published by Saraband. I got through most of it on the journey home from holiday, and read the rest today. Andrew Millham's first book explores the relationship between birds and folk songs. It's an area briefly covered in Patrick Galbraith's In Search Of One Last Long (2022) but this is the first dedicated treatment I am aware of.
If that sounds very niche don't let you put you off, it's an extremely readable account. Millham generally writes in a conversational way that draws you into the subject, and his evident enthusiasm for folk songs ancient and modern helps with this. Of course one of the problems with a book on songs is they are oral / aural forms, so it's a nice touch that there is a QR code at the end of the book that gives links to where you can find videos of most of the tunes featured.
Andrew is candid about the fact that he is still on a learning journey and many folk songs about birds probably remain to be discovered by him. As far as I could judge coming from the birding strand he has offset this by painstaking research into folk songs and key British exponents. I did feel in a handful of places however it may have helped to have had the work proofread from the ornithological standpoint.
There were a couple of minor areas where I thought minor alterations would have enhanced the work. Firstly the dozen subjects of the chapters are eleven wild bird species / families, the outlier of domestic chicken I think could have been omitted without losing anything. Secondly whilst I get why culminating with the Mute Swan facilitated a final chapter called 'Swan Song' the optimism for the future at the end of the owl account would have been a better finale.
In summary though this is an entertaining debut which is well worth a read whether birds or folk songs are your thing.
If that sounds very niche don't let you put you off, it's an extremely readable account. Millham generally writes in a conversational way that draws you into the subject, and his evident enthusiasm for folk songs ancient and modern helps with this. Of course one of the problems with a book on songs is they are oral / aural forms, so it's a nice touch that there is a QR code at the end of the book that gives links to where you can find videos of most of the tunes featured.
Andrew is candid about the fact that he is still on a learning journey and many folk songs about birds probably remain to be discovered by him. As far as I could judge coming from the birding strand he has offset this by painstaking research into folk songs and key British exponents. I did feel in a handful of places however it may have helped to have had the work proofread from the ornithological standpoint.
There were a couple of minor areas where I thought minor alterations would have enhanced the work. Firstly the dozen subjects of the chapters are eleven wild bird species / families, the outlier of domestic chicken I think could have been omitted without losing anything. Secondly whilst I get why culminating with the Mute Swan facilitated a final chapter called 'Swan Song' the optimism for the future at the end of the owl account would have been a better finale.
In summary though this is an entertaining debut which is well worth a read whether birds or folk songs are your thing.
April 5, 2024
This is a rather sweet little book. Its strength is that it charts the author's discovery and investigation of folk song through his appreciation of the natural world. As a result, there's not much here that's new to anyone but Millham, but his discovery of it is compellingly sweet. (The writing sometimes gets a little slapdash through his enthusiasm, in fact).
He's only got so far yet, though, so the argument and connections are still a little rudimentary, and there's a lot more connections for him to make. That's quite exciting, mind, because he's enjoying it so much, but it works better as a book about his excitement than about its content at times.
It might benefit from some pointers towards sources for some of its statements - I don't doubt them, just don't know where to read more - although the accompanying documentation of the songs is better, with a downloadable list of YouTube links via a QR code. You sometimes feel like he could have done with a better-informed editor or reader to accompany him along the way and reflect back his discoveries. That might have prevented a couple of minor but unnecessary little errors (the suggestion that Peter Kennedy was American might just have been sloppy editing, but 'Maddy' Holland for Maggie is just unfortunate).
He's only got so far yet, though, so the argument and connections are still a little rudimentary, and there's a lot more connections for him to make. That's quite exciting, mind, because he's enjoying it so much, but it works better as a book about his excitement than about its content at times.
It might benefit from some pointers towards sources for some of its statements - I don't doubt them, just don't know where to read more - although the accompanying documentation of the songs is better, with a downloadable list of YouTube links via a QR code. You sometimes feel like he could have done with a better-informed editor or reader to accompany him along the way and reflect back his discoveries. That might have prevented a couple of minor but unnecessary little errors (the suggestion that Peter Kennedy was American might just have been sloppy editing, but 'Maddy' Holland for Maggie is just unfortunate).
July 15, 2023
This book was a must for me as soon as I saw the title and read the early reviews. I was not disappointed.
My teenage years in the late 60s were spent traipsing across the fields of Oxfordshire birdwatching by day and in folk clubs in the evenings. I have also had a long passion for the music of Vaughan Williams.
Andrew Millham has capably, sensitively and eloquently brought these together.
The experience reading the book was enhanced by accessing a Spotify playlist that someone had already created relating to and following the book (although there were a couple of extraneous and unhelpful inclusions in the playlist).
This is, in one sense, a niche book but anyone who entertains any level of engagement with ornithology and folk music is very likely to find reading it a rewarding experience.
My teenage years in the late 60s were spent traipsing across the fields of Oxfordshire birdwatching by day and in folk clubs in the evenings. I have also had a long passion for the music of Vaughan Williams.
Andrew Millham has capably, sensitively and eloquently brought these together.
The experience reading the book was enhanced by accessing a Spotify playlist that someone had already created relating to and following the book (although there were a couple of extraneous and unhelpful inclusions in the playlist).
This is, in one sense, a niche book but anyone who entertains any level of engagement with ornithology and folk music is very likely to find reading it a rewarding experience.
September 4, 2024
As a folk singer and a bird watcher I can’t recommend this book enough (although I’m sure there’s so much to enjoy still for readers who are neither of these things). Our connection to nature is inextricably linked to an innate desire to express this connection through song and has been for centuries and it’s so touching to read a book that illustrates this through such beautiful prose. An easy read but also very informative, I learnt many new things about birds and many of my folk heroes.
September 20, 2023
Bird songs and folk songs are closely connected, with birds of different kinds featuring in a wealth of songs across the British isles and beyond. Andrew Millham examines the relationship between these two in the context of British folk songs and delightfully shows how valuable birds and their imagery are to the writers and singers of folk songs.
This is lovely little book with plenty of songs (but no music - though playlists of the songs within are available) that run the full range of emotions from poignant love songs to merry drinking songs. Millham not only celebrates the birds that inspire the music but the singers who sing these songs too charting their own lives and how music has played a role in them.
This is lovely little book with plenty of songs (but no music - though playlists of the songs within are available) that run the full range of emotions from poignant love songs to merry drinking songs. Millham not only celebrates the birds that inspire the music but the singers who sing these songs too charting their own lives and how music has played a role in them.
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