This interesting book explores the music borne out of life's ups and downs through the ages. Songs like The Gresford Disaster, The Ballad of Hollis Brown, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Nelson' s Victory at Copenhagen, Dick Turpin, Billy the Kid, Poor Paddy Works on the Railway and Freight Train Blues. The book explains how these traditional songs were made up and what sort of things trigger the ideas behind the music.