The New Oxford Book of Carols

And everything you need to know about every carol ever written (and that is only a slight exaggeration) is to be found in The New Oxford Book of Carols published in 1992. I'm just surprised that BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs hasn't yet introduced Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott's extraordinary work of scholarly musicianship to its closing material: 'So, we'll give you the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare, and The New Oxford Book of Carols, which other book . . . ?

• PART 1: COMPOSED CAROLS; THE MIDDLE AGES; ENGLISH CAROLS 1400-1700; EUROPEAN CAROLS 1550-1700; EUROPE AND AMERICA 1700-1830; THE LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY; THE TWENTIETH CENTURY; PART TWO: TRADITIONAL CAROLS; ENGLISH TRADITIONAL; LUCK-VISIT SONGS; IRISH TRADITIONAL; WELSH TRADITIONAL; AMERICAN TRADITIONAL; TRINIDADIAN TRADITIONAL; GERMAN TRADITIONAL; CZECH TRADITIONAL; POLISH TRADITIONAL; PROVENCAL TRADITIONAL; FRENCH TRADITIONAL; BASQUE TRADITIONAL; SPANISH TRADITIONAL; NEOPOLITAN TRADITIONAL