The Captain's Apprentice Ralph Vaughan Williams and the story of a Folk Song.<br />First edition.

London: Chatto & Windus, 2022. First edition. Hardback. xii, 386pp. Dust jacket in a protective sleeve. In 1905 the young Ralph Vaughan Williams visited King's Lynn in Norfolk to find folk songs "from the mouths of the singers". He had started to collect in earnest just over a year before but was now obsessed with saving these indigenous tunes before they were lost forever. James 'Duggie' Carter, an old fisherman, performed "The Captain's Apprentice", a brutal tale of totrture sung to a most beautiful tune. This is the story of how this mysterious song 'opened a door to an entirely new world of melody, harmony and feeling' for Vaughan Williams. This book traces the contrasting lives of the well-to-do composer and a forgotten King's Lynn cabin boy who died at sea. While exploring her own connections to folk song, via a Hebridean ancestor, a Scottish ballad learnt as a child and memories of family sing-songs, Caroline Davison makes the unexpected discovery that Vaughan Williams has been a hidden influence on her musical life from the beginning - an experience she shares with generations of twentieth century British children. Black & white illustrations. Book and dust jacket both in fine condition. Dust jacket unclipped. and with a round sticker to front "As read on BBC Radio 4".