Jean Ritchie – författare

'I'll always remember that Christmas. It was the day the angel came...'It is Christmas Eve and Lisa faces another Christmas alone. After running away from home as a teenager to live with a man who treated her badly, Lisa has spent years searching for a peace and happiness that seem forever out of her reach. Now, at the age of 35, although she's settled in a job, she has never managed to open herself up to love. For Lisa has a hidden guilt that's been at the centre of her life for as long as she can remember. And on this lonely Christmas Eve, the burden becomes too much to bear. But then something extraordinary happens, and suddenly Lisa realises that perhaps there is hope. And maybe it's time to forgive herself for her mistakes. There are many obstacles to overcome, but with the help of her angel, Lisa can learn to heal the rifts from her past, and find a love that will last...

He was a pillar of the community, serving on local committees, donating prizes to the rugby club, organising charity collections. His patients thought the world of him: he was attentive, kind, never too busy to chat. Yet Dr Harold Frederick Shipman was also the most prolific serial killer the world has ever known, with between 200 and 300 victims. Quietly, for many years, the small, bespectacled GP was making unexpected house calls - and walking out leaving a dead body behind.The murderous career of Dr Shipman only came to an end when police in Hyde, Greater Manchester, were called to investigate a forged will. Overnight, they found themselves embroiled in the biggest murder case in British history.Substantially revised and updated since Shipman's suicide in prison, this is a compelling account of these monstrous crimes and of the man who committed them. The authors have had unparalleled access to friends, colleagues and patients. Their in-depth and authoritative investigation looks at how he killed, how he was able to get away with it for so long, and - most important of all - why.

The "singing family" of which Jean Ritchie writes is that of her parents, Balis and Abigail Ritchie, and their fourteen children, all born and reared in Viper, Kentucky, deep in the Cumberland Mountains. Jean, the youngest of the clan, grew up to be a world renowned folksinger. But she was hardly unique in the family. All the Ritchies sang -- when they worked, when they prayed, when they rejoiced, even when tragedy struck.Singing Family of the Cumberlands is both an appealing account of family life and a treasury of American folklore and folksong. In the deceptively simple but picturesque language of rural Kentucky, Jean Ritchie tells of a way of life now nearly vanished and of a gentle, upright people shielded from the outside world by forbidding mountain ranges, preserving the traditions of their forebears.Foremost among those traditions were the British folksongs brought from England by James Ritchie in 1768. Even in a region noted for its wealth of folksongs, the Ritchies' inheritance was exceptional. Forty-two of the family's beloved songs are woven through Jean Ritchie's narrative, complete with words and often musical scores. Each song evokes a memory for Jean -- hoeing corn, stirring off molasses, telling ghost stories, singing a dying baby to its eternal rest. Songs lightened the burden of poverty for the Ritchies and brought them joy and solace. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak, Singing Family of the Cumberlands will delight readers in all walks of life.

Jean Ritchie is the best known and most respected singer of traditional ballads in the United States. The youngest daughter of one of the most famous American ballad-singing families, the Ritchie family of Perry County, Kentucky, Jean carries on her family's legacy as a singer of folk songs and traditional ballads. The music found here tells the story of the ""Singing Ritchie Family."" Built upon a foundation of balladry inherited from old-world Scotland, the family's repertoire was certainly eclectic but not haphazard. The Child ballads, lyric folksongs, play party or frolic songs, Old Regular Baptist lined hymns, Native American ballads, "hant" songs, and carols brought together in this collection were assembled by family members who actively sought out fragments of tunes and completed them by adding or embellishing verses and melodies. This new edition has faithfully retained all seventy-seven line scores of the songs and added four new ones, Loving Hannah, Lovin' Henry, Her Mantle So Green, and The Reckless and Rambling Boy. The original headnotes and photographs tell the history of the song as well as how it became a part of the family's life. Chords are indicated for accompainment, and a new audiography and videography have been added to this edition.

Jean Ritchie, the youngest of fourteen children born and raised in Viper, Kentucky, is considered one of the greatest balladeers in this century. Her performances have influenced the resurgence of interest in folk music and given audiences a glimpse into the heart of Appalachia. Jean Ritchie's Swapping Song Book brings together twenty-one songs from the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky. Many are old songs, brought over by settlers from Scotland, Ireland, and England. Child ballads, gospel music, play party tunes, and frolic songs have been handed down by family members, with each generation adding or embellishing verses and melodies. This new edition retains the original text, written by Ritchie, and includes her husband George Pickow's beautiful photographs to help illustrate the stories of such songs as "Jubilee," "The Old Soap Gourd," and "Ground Hog." A new foreword by Charles Wolfe shows how Ritchie's collection of songs is "part of the rich folk poetry" that makes up Appalachian culture.

Jean Ritchie's Kentucky Mother Goose is a collection of songs, rhymes and stories recalled by Jean from her own childhood. The youngest of 14 children in a singing family from Viper, Kentucky, she grew up surrounded by the ballads, hymns, play-party songs, singing games and dulcimer tunes that comprised the Ritchie Family repertoire. Her 1955 book, Singing Family of the Cumberlands, portrays the rich musical life of the Ritchies: Jean's mother, Abigail; her father, Balis, who taught her the dulcimer; “Uncle Jason” a prolific collector of “big ballads” and songs; and her older siblings. Now in her 90s, Jean has returned to the earliest recollections of her songs, and the stories that surround them.In the foreword for Susan Brumfield's Hot Peas and Barley-O: Children's Songs and Games from Scotland, Jean wrote, “The next thing I'm inspired to do is to recollect and write down all my memories of our childhood songs and games. Perhaps all of you will do the same.” That was the first step toward this collaboration on Jean Ritchie's Kentucky Mother Goose. The anthology contains transcriptions of the songs sung by Jean on the enclosed CD, annotations and notes on the songs, and related stories. The recordings include Jean singing for famed collector Alan Lomax in the 1940s and '50s and for Brumfield in the 2000s.Richly illustrated with family photos from Jean's childhood, and photos by her husband, photographer and filmmaker George Pickow, this book is a fascinating window into the musical beginnings of a true American treasure.Note: Jean Ritchie passed away peacefully on the first of June, 2015, shortly after the last draft of her Kentucky Mother Goose was completed. She spent her last days at home in Berea, surrounded by dear family members who filled the hours at her bedside singing their beloved Ritchie family songs. Jean was laid to rest beside her husband, George Pickow, in the beautiful hilltop cemetery near her family home in Viper, Kentucky.