 2011
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The Toad and the Donkey brings together prose and poetry in the Norman languages of the Channel Islands, along with other texts that illustrate the linguistic and literary context of vernacular literature in the Bailiwicks. Edited by Geraint Jennings and Yan Marquis, texts from Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark have been selected and translated, some for the first time, in order to illustrate how writers from the Islands have been inspired by each other, and by overseas influences.
From Jersey’s earliest known poet, the twelfth-century Wace, who was the first to introduce the Round Table to Arthurian legend, and who is remembered in the monument in the Royal Square, to the inspirational nineteenth-century revival in Guernsey and Jersey, as well as writing from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, The Toad and the Donkey explores themes such as economic expansion across the Atlantic to North America and elections at home; love and limpets; witchcraft, war and women’s emancipation; slave-trading and seaweed.
"Whatever the language, the book is a fascinating and often first-person snapshot of the life and history of the Islands. Open the book at any page and there will be an anecdote, observation or story that illuminates Island life temps passé... The book is essential reading for anyone interested in studying each of the islands' Norman languages, and definitely a good read for those who enjoy a glimpse of Island history, written by the people who lived it." (Jersey Evening Post, 4/6/2011)
Francis Boutle Publishers
Paperback, 477 pages
ISBN 978 1903427 61 3
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