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Partridges, pear trees, gold rings, dancing ladies and leaping lords… the gifts associated with the The Twelve Days of Christmas. The earliest known publication of the words of the perennially popular song were in an illustrated children’s book called ‘Mirth Without Mischief’, published in 1780, although the origins may go back as far as the early 1600s.

Whether those 364 gifts of milk maids, drummers, pipers and assorted birds were actually appreciated is the subject of UA Fanthorpe’s poem Dear True Love, as she ponders on questions such as where exactly are the seven swans going to swim..? William Makepeace Thackeray and Clare Pollard offer us pears, Elizabeth Hands tells of a feisty milkmaid, Dylan Thomas nods to a drum and Charles Dickens, of course, brings the Christmas goose to the table. In Liz Lochhead’s poem we’ll discover how beautifully she decorates her tree and we’ll hear from Ian McMillan as he reads his own festive take, The Twelve Days of Barnsley.

Our music is a mix of Christmas favourites and pieces to reflect the gifts from My True Love. Saint-Saens Le Cygne, Haydn’s Symphony No 83 ‘The Hen’ and Janequin’s Le Chant des Oiseaux encapsulate many of the avian offerings. And of course we have a little something from Ian Partridge. There’s Vítězslava Kaprálová’s Christmas Prelude, Hely-Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony and a little burst of joy from Michael Caine.

We begin with the song itself, today’s familiar version is a 1909 arrangement from the English composer Frederic Austin.

The readers are Olivia Williams and Jake Yapp.

Producer: Elizabeth Foster