19th Century… Playing Robin Hood in the Victorian Nursery 21 Jun 202021 Jun 2020 By Stephen Basdeo Thomas Rowland argues that for most of the “mythic” outlaw’s history, “Robin was much more a character of ludic texts, of play games and festival culture, than…
19th Century… “Saxon Grit” 23 Apr 2020 St George’s Day seems as fitting time as ever to publish a “new” Robin Hood poem I found titled “Saxon Grit” in the archives of a long-defunct Christian socialist magazine…
20th Century… “They had never heard of Robin Hood”: Remarks from George Orwell’s “A Clergyman’s Daughter” (1935) 3 Mar 2020 By Stephen Basdeo Robin Hood has on occasion been accused of being a hero who appears mainly in literature for the middle classes. The first ever printed copies of A…
14th Century… Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough and William of Cloudeslie 20 Feb 2020 By Stephen Basdeo Stories of Robin Hood have been popular since at least the late fourteenth century, as we know from William Langland’s Vision of Piers Plowman (c.1377). However, around…
20th Century… “Like a faint echo from the Middle Ages”: George Orwell’s Time among the Tramps 18 Feb 202018 Feb 2020 By Stephen Basdeo It was the roaring 1920s. After the carnage of the Great War (1914–18), it truly seemed as if Britain was changing for the better in some respects.…
15th Century… Joseph Ritson’s Discovery of “Robin Hood and the Monk” (1465) 28 Jan 2020 By Stephen Basdeo While researching my book, Discovering Robin Hood: The Life of Joseph Ritson: Gentleman, Scholar, and Revolutionary, I came across some fascinating information. I give below a snippet…
