The Rhyme of the Reddleman's Daughter originated from a story the poet's four-year-old daughter told him in her bath... "I'll tell a story from my mouth ..." her term for an oral story rather than one read from a book.

Book-ended with the idea of the Reddleman or Raddleman (a liminal figure who would travel the chalk hills marking sheep with a red dye at pairing time), the ballad is rooted in the landscape, flora and fauna of the South Downs.

The ballad form became the most fitting way of uniting form and content, and like Songs of Innocence and Experience it is written for both adults and children.