Pam Horrocks and Keith Britten, the owners of the new Holt Bookshop, are very excited to be hosting their first author event on the eve of their first birthday on Saturday 31st July. 

Bruce Lindsay will be in conversation with local composer Tony Britten (Keith’s brother) about his new book “Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival: The Lives, Song Traditions and Legacies of Sam Larner and Harry Cox”, The book explores the lives and song traditions of two of the most influential English traditional singers: Sam Larner and Harry Cox who lived in Norfolk and have directly influenced leading folk performers like Martin Carthy – see full details below about the book.
 
The event will be hosted in the courtyard outside their shop at 4pm, and this will be a ticketed free event with seating. They will have had a poetry event on the Friday as part of the Holt Festival which has been safety checked by the council and will be following the same guidelines.
 
After the event, around 5pm, there will be the chance for a glass of wine and local professional folk musicians Chris Holderness and Alan Helsdon will be playing a few songs by Cox and Larner.
 
Email us at sales@holtbookshop.co.uk to reserve a ticket for Bruce Lindsay.

“Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival: The Lives, Song Traditions and Legacies of Sam Larner and Harry Cox” by Bruce Lindsay

Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival explores the lives and song traditions of two of the most influential English traditional singers: Sam Larner and Harry Cox. Using extensive primary evidence, including recorded interviews with both men, the book provides the first detailed biographies of these great singers, placing their singing and repertoires within the social and cultural contexts in which they lived. Larner and Cox were born within six years and 15 miles of each other, in late-nineteenth century Norfolk.

Both men grew up in large, working-class, families, started work before their teens, spent their working lives in hard manual labour – Sam as a trawlerman, Harry as a farm labourer – married late and lived into their 80s. Crucially, both men were singers from an early age, amassed large repertoires of songs that are now established in the traditional canon and became key figures in the ‘folk revival’ of the 1950s and 60s. They directly influenced performers such as Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins, Peggy Seeger, Young Tradition and Steeleye Span, and indirectly influenced Paul Simon and Bob Dylan.

Their impact extends to the current generation of performers and composers in the folk, Americana and singer/songwriter fields and even to Hollywood.

To read a short article about this event (Harry, Holt & Harmony), please see HERE.