All About the Morris

Lavishly illustrated, with many of the more recent pictures reproduced in colour, this 88 page book gives a history of morris dancing from the mid 15th century up to the present date. The book explains the historical backgrounds of the many different forms of morris dancing, which are compared and contrasted. Sections of the book tell the story of the collection and revival of the dances, how and why controversies arose over the subject of morris dancing by women, and the founding of the nationwide morris organisations: The Morris Ring, The Morris Federation and Open Morris. The book ends by noting current trends away from single-sex teams dancing the Cotswold and North-West forms of morris dancing towards mixed-sex teams performing dances based on the dance styles of the Welsh Border counties and the Cambridgeshire Fens. The book is mostly about teams in England and Wales but a short section also describes the spread of morris around the world, particularly in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.