'Harking Back to Long Ago' by Winifred Holtby, a Christmas vignette скачать в хорошем качестве

'Harking Back to Long Ago' by Winifred Holtby, a Christmas vignette

Winifred Holtby (born in Yorkshire, 1898-1935) was a novelist and journalist in the 1920s and 30s. She is most famous for her novel ‘South Riding’ and her friendship with the feminist and pacifist campaigner, Vera Brittain. Holtby tragically died at the age of 37 from Bright’s Disease. In this undated piece, Holtby explores the sounds of Christmases past. It is a beautiful vignette, an exploration of the power of memory, and a journey through the Christmases of the past. Not just Holtby’s own past but of many centuries - the Christmas Day on which Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, the first Christmas after the Restoration of King Charles II, one of Samuel Pepys’s very strange Christmases, a pre-Christian British winter celebration, a Christmas with Jozef Korzeniowski spent out in the choppy seas of the English Channel aboard a ship, a Christmas in medieval Kent as a young girl walks along and sings ‘I Sing of a Mayden’…etc. etc! Holtby imagines a future where a machine can capture all the sounds of these Christmases. It is so beautiful that I wanted to record it in time for Christmas - it seems difficult to find online. Sorry for the slightly sloppy editing but I didn’t want any mistakes in the reading of this. It is gorgeous as it is.