How Far to Bethlehem? A novel ABOUT Christmas

[Katie-Ellen]

Scout out a copy. Meet the astronomer, the fighting man and the escaped slave; the 'real' Magi in this comparatively little known novel by Norah Lofts, a historical novelist who deserves to be better known than she is today.

"Norah Lofts perfected the art of bringing the past alive in her works of historical fiction. She remains one of England's most distinguished and best loved women of letters, selling more than a million books and captivating generations of readers. Lofts' first novel, "I Met a Gypsy", won the American Booksellers' Award for 1935. In her long and prolific career, she wrote more than 60 books of nonfiction, biography and historical fiction, animating history and yet preserving historical accuracy. In works such as "Scent of Cloves" (1940), "Bless This House" (1954), and "Crown of Aloes" (1979), period detail and language are blended with a masterful storytelling technique. Lofts is also well known for biographical novels about great and fascinating women of history such as Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon. In addition, Lofts has written thrillers under the pseudonym Peter Curtis and novels as Juliet Astley. Norah (Robinson) Lofts was born in Norfolk, England on August 27, 1904. She credited her history-teaching years, 1925 to 1936, for developing a sense of history which became the foundation for her writings. Married and the mother of two sons, she lived in an ancient English city, among medieval ruins, in a 250-year-old house. She died there on September 10, 1983."

Bring on the carol. I love the pipes on this version...they sound like Northumbrian pipes.

We Three Kings -Blackmore's Night

 

[Emily]

That version of We Three Kings is probably the best I've ever heard. Sublime (Thank you Saved to the Christmas Playlist!)

 

[Jonny]

Nice version @Katie-Ellen

I hadn't heard it before. They do sound like Northumbrian Pipes but I wondered if it was a multi tracked crumhorn. So I looked the band up.

It's a collaboration between Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore and someone called Candice Night (you may know this anyway - but never heard of her before) she plays a range of medieval woodwind instruments, although crumhorn isn't listed. There are other weird and wonderful ones too, one of which is a relative of the crumhorn called a cornamuse, so I guess it's one of them multi tracked. Great sound though.

I love a bagpipe, me and if you do too, try this. It's the Irish type (Uilleann Pipes) Saddest sound in the world. Boo-hoo.

Davey Spillane

 

[Katie-Ellen]

It's lovely.