The Christmas Cuckoo or The Barley Bread Allegory

Folklore, Food & Fairytales

The Story in this episode is: The Christmas Cuckoo - This story is adapted from a literary fairytale written by Frances Elizabeth Browne from a book called from Granny’s Wonderful Chair, first published in 1856. Frances was born in 1816 in Donegal but moved first to Scotland and then to London. She originally wrote poetry but also wrote short stories. The whole collection is beautiful and she created a gorgeous world rich in imaginative detail, made even more incredible by the fact that she lost her sight at 8 months old.

If you would like to hear the festive story collections I talked about in this episode you can find them at Festive Story Collections

You can find the interviews in my newest interview series here: How Food Frames Stories. You can find my interviews with storytellers here: Vernacular Voices of the Storyteller

You can also subscribe (or just read) my free newsletter for further snippets of folklore, history, stories, vintage recipes, herblore & the occasional cocktail.

You can also find out more at Hestia's Kitchen which has all past episodes and the connected recipes on the blog. If you'd like to get in touch about the podcast you can find me here