Martin Graebe

Martin Graebe is a researcher and writer about traditional song and song collectors. His book about the antiquarian and folk song collector Sabine Baring-Gould, published in 2017, won the Katharine Briggs Prize of the Folklore Society, and the W G Hoskins Prize of the Devon History Society. His most recent book The Forgotten Songs of the Upper Thames, about the song collection made by Alfred Williams, was launched in October 2021 and was a runner-up in the 2022 Katharine Briggs Prize. He has given talks on Baring-Gould, and on other aspects of traditional folk song, to audiences around the world. He and his wife, Shan, also perform traditional songs together in harmony.

Talk: Sabine Baring-Gould, One Hundred Years On – A presentation by Martin Graebe – Tuesday 6th August. 

Sabine Baring-Gould, Parson, Squire, Novelist, Travel writer, Antiquary, Folk song collector, and more, died on the 2nd of January 1924, a few days short of his 90th birthday. In this presentation, Martin Graebe looks back at the life of this remarkable man, the first of the large-scale folk song collectors, and considers the value of the legacy that he has left us.