Jerusalem The Story of a Song by Edwin John Lerner

 Who could forget the soaring strains of Jerusalem at the beginning of the movie Chariots of Fire? This was just one of the several famous scenes in movies featuring the famous song. It also appeared in The Calendar Girls, another film based on a true story. 

In this book, Lerner traces the history of the well-known hymn through many incarnations beginning the 'mad' poet who wrote the poem , William Blake. Apparently, in spite of being so talented, Blake had money problems, but he managed to get by, with his long-suffering wife's moral support. Surprisingly, he preferred to live amongst London's 'dark, satanic mills', rather than the beautiful green countryside.

Hubert Parry, the composer, the composer who wrote the memorable music, is another fascinating character. Although he had his doubts about the First World War, he did his patriotic duty when asked to write 'suitable, simple music' to Jerusalem to support the Fight for Right campaign helping the war effort. Parry, who named his daughters after characters in the progressive George Eliot's novels, was much happier when he helped the Suffragettes use the song as their anthem. I found the section about the Suffragettes the most interesting part of the book.

The song has also been used as an anthem by the Women's Institute, and at sporting events. It has also been regarded as a socialist hymn. It's quite amazing that one song could have been used in so many different ways.

I was pleasantly surprised by this story of the fascinating history of Jerusalem. It's written in a lively style, although I felt that Lerner was somewhat inclined to go off on tangents at times, for example, he writes a few pages about the Vietnam War, which I didn't think was really necessary. Also, he is rather dogmatic about his opinion of the character of the Scottish people!

I received this free ebook from John Hunt Publishing in return for a free review.