We are delighted to announce that Caroline Davison, author of THE CAPTAIN’S APPRENTICE: Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Story of a Folk Song, is the winner of the Ipswich Institute’s New Angle Prize. The award recognises a recently published book of ‘literary merit, associated or influence by the region of East Anglia.’

In 1905, Vaughan Williams visited Kings Lynn, Norfolk, to find folk songs directly from folk singers. James ‘Duggie’ Carter, and old fisherman, performed The Captain’s Apprentice for Vaughan Williams. The book traces the contrasting lives of the well-to-do composer and a forgotten King’s Lynn cabin boy, bringing a new perspective to Edwardian folk-song collectors, singers, and their songs. Davison, the author, while exploring her connections to folk song, discovered that Vaughan Williams has in fact been a hidden influence on her musical life since childhood...

Caroline Davison has also been longlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Award, her work being described as  a ‘powerful and poignant story of working-class life, culture and memory at the turn of the 20^thcentury…microhistory at its very best’.

THE CAPTAIN’S APPRENTICE was initially published in August 2022, and the paperback was released in August 2023.

Buy THE CAPTAIN’S APPRENTICE: Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Story of a Folk Song: Paperback:https://amzn.eu/d/j54upFL

Hardback: https://amzn.eu/d/9Uv2rXm