Games, Rhymes, and Wordplay of London Children

N. G. N. Kelsey worked as a primary school teacher in London from 1952 until his retirement in 1982. During this time, he collected examples of the language and lore of the children under his care.
Janet E. Alton is an independent researcher based at the Centre for English Traditional Heritage, UK.
J. D. A. Widdowson is Director of the Centre for English Traditional Heritage, UK.
Janet E. Alton and J. D. A. Widdowson have collaborated on projects and publications in linguistics and folklore for over forty years, within the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition (NATCECT) at the University of Sheffield, which Professor Widdowson founded in 1964 and directed until 2004. Janet Alton took a master's degree in NATCECT, later appointed Honorary Research Associate, and a Leverhulme Fellowship enabled her to begin adding the wealth of annotations and referencesto Nigel Kelsey's basic collection. Professor Widdowson founded the Centre for English Traditional Heritage (CETH) in 2000 and he and Janet co-edit the Centre's e-journal, Tradition Today. Professor J. D. A. Widdowson's doctoral dissertation was on the traditional social control of children. He is an internationally respected scholar, author of a wide range of books and articles on English language, linguistics, and cultural tradition, and member of all the major learned societies in the field. Hon DLitt, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Hon DLitt, University of Edinburgh. Awarded the Folklore Society's prestigious Coote Lake Medal in 2000.