This book, a collection of indigenous songs reprinted from last century's original edition, offers a rare and precious glimpse into the old-time life and culture of the African-American residents of the Georgia Sea Islands -- a way of life now almost totally wiped out by the onslaught of tourism and related development.

Lydia Parrish, wife of famous painter and illustrator Maxfield Parrish, made it her life's work to discover and help preserve a unique culture which even then, nearly a century ago, was showing signs of fading away under the pressures of modern life.

Parrish faithfully collected and recorded traditional music of Georgia Sea Island residents, most of whom were escaped or freed slaves who gravitated here to make new homes off the beaten track of a society with no ready place for them. This book, with its lyrics, scores, and editorial notes, along with Parrish's other work in this arena, were the keys to keeping this tradition from fading completely from national consciousness. She also promoted the founding of the Georgia Sea Island Singers (whose unique audio recordings of this material can also be found at amazon.com).

Fans of folk music, American history, African-American history, slave lore, anthropology and even Maxfield Parrish will find this book a rare and unusual item for the bookshelf and, if musically inclined, for the voice and ear as well.

The character of the Paladin is just a soldier doing his job. The monster in this book is Owl, who justifies any number of crimes he forces the young hero to commit "for England." Of course assassinating enemy personnel is no shock during war, but the early sequences where Paladin is ordered to murder a bunch of English and Dutch citizens (including a young woman) who have totally unwittingly stumbled onto an important war secret are repugnant and insane in their rationalization. Apparently Owl had never heard of the word "internment" until Churchill himself points out how such things should be handled. Also, please enjoy the part where English commandos in training are ordered to practice their killings techniques on German POWs. Poor Owl missed his calling -- he would have been right at home in the Gestapo.

The Paladin is supposedly a novel based on facts, as told to the author by "Christopher Creighton." Creighton, the paladin, was recruited as a teenage boy by Winston Churchill during WWII and sent around the world on missions of state -- usually violent missions. The premise of this novel seemed very appealing to me, as I am a big fan of WWII novels. However, overall, I was disappointed in this novel. To me, the book reads more like a CHRONICLE of Creighton's individual, exciting missions rather than a good NOVEL. I found the book just adequate (at best) in terms of plot development, character development (particularly regarding the secondary characters), and believable dialogue. There's no question that the missions Creighton supposedly carried out for his country were extremely heroic. If these supposedly previously untold missions were written as a non-fiction historical biography about Creighton, I would have had different expectations going in and might have enjoyed the book more. In a good novel, however, as mentioned, I'm looking for more than just an interesting chronicle of facts.

I think this book is the best one I've ever read, although it may not be true and the hero's name is not Cristopher Creighton I still enjoy the book all the same. I also am amazed on how well it tied in with acual history.