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The Lore of the Playground: One Hundred Years of Children's Games, Rhymes & Traditions
A fascinating survey of 100 years of children's games and rhymes
From conkers to marbles, from skipping to tag, not forgetting "one potato, two potato" and "eeny, meeny, miny, mo," Lore of the Playground explores the world of Britain's playgrounds, and looks at the games children have enjoyed and the rhymes they have chanted over the past hundred years and more. Each generation, it emerges, has had its own favorites—"Knock Down Ginger" in the 1950s, "Chain Tig" in the 1970s. Some pastimes, such as skipping, have proved remarkably resilient, their complicated rules carefully handed down from one class to the next. Many are now the stuff of distant memory. And some traditions have proved to be strongly regional, loved by children in one part of Britain, unknown to those elsewhere. All are brilliantly and meticulously recorded by Steve Roud, who has drawn on interviews with hundreds of people aged from eight to 80, to create a fascinating picture of all our childhoods.
From conkers to marbles, from skipping to tag, not forgetting "one potato, two potato" and "eeny, meeny, miny, mo," Lore of the Playground explores the world of Britain's playgrounds, and looks at the games children have enjoyed and the rhymes they have chanted over the past hundred years and more. Each generation, it emerges, has had its own favorites—"Knock Down Ginger" in the 1950s, "Chain Tig" in the 1970s. Some pastimes, such as skipping, have proved remarkably resilient, their complicated rules carefully handed down from one class to the next. Many are now the stuff of distant memory. And some traditions have proved to be strongly regional, loved by children in one part of Britain, unknown to those elsewhere. All are brilliantly and meticulously recorded by Steve Roud, who has drawn on interviews with hundreds of people aged from eight to 80, to create a fascinating picture of all our childhoods.
- GenresHistory
576 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 10, 2012
Fascinating meander through the history of childrens playground games. Lots of memories of games played in the pastsome that I thought were unique to my school weren't
July 31, 2011
Fun to page through. I was amazed at how similar British and American childhood games are
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews