The multitude of festivals and customs celebrated all over England are chronicled in The English Year, by Steve Roud (Penguin, £30), winner of the 2004 Katharine Briggs Folklore Award. Some are quite bizarre and others downright cruel, while many are no longer considered an accepted part of our calendar, writes Helen Peacocke.

Sparrow mumbling, for example, which involved biting the feathers of a live bird while the bird attempted to defend itself by pecking the assailant's face, now belongs to the past. Rook Sunday, however, which also involves the death of a bird - several birds, actually - continued well into the 20th century. This was celebrated in mid-May by baking a pie filled with baby rooks, and decorating it around the outer edge with marks of the rooks' feet. Rooks are said to taste like a cross between chicken and turkey and were considered by some to be a local delicacy. They are seldom eaten now.

The book looks at the origins of other practices such as Oxford's beating of the bounds, and the Bampton Morris dance, which takes place every Spring Bank Holiday morning, along with details of Abingdon's bun-throwing custom on national and royal occasions - thought to have begun in 1809 to celebrate George III's recovery from illness. Roud says the custom of bun-throwing in Abingdon has become more frequent since 1980s. Other customs, such as Father's Day, did not gain full acceptance until after the Second World War, and as the author reminds us, are still far from universal.

He also reminds us that although the English go in for all kinds of arcane celebrations, we don't celebrate our own St George's Day, which is ironic, given some of the obscure days we do celebrate.

Steve Roud has spent more than 30 years researching British folklore, which may account for the intriguing detail he has managed to weave into his description of the festivals and customs he has chronicled.