Product Description: 'Historian and actress Sandra Billington takes us on an entertaining, illuminating and extremely informative journey. This unique book is essential reading for all serious fools and clowns.' Mike LeighWho is the Fool and what does he mean to us? Pre-1900 scholars thought him a Renaissance fashion, a continental import of note in the British Isles only between 1486 and the 1630s, per his appearances in Shakespeare...read more

Product Description: This book is based on fresh and original research from archives in France and the Low Countries, concerning customs and beliefs practised around the midsummer solstice. The information has never previously been considered and it reveals a festive treatment of divisiveness, which might also be politically engaged...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)