Summat

 

"Summat" is Yorkshire-speak for "something". It is used very widely in my county - mostly by those who are familiar with economic hardship. "Nowt" is another word my people use a lot and that means "nothing". I have just finished reading a book titled "Neither Nowt Nor Summat" by the fellow at the top of this blogpost - Ian McMillan.

Known as The Bard of Barnsley, seventy year old Ian McMillan was born and raised in the pit village of Darfield which is right next door to Wombwell. I think it is to his credit that Ian still lives in Darfield. He is very much part of the community there. He married a local woman and together they raised three children in the village. His son, Andrew, has become a significant poet in his own right.

Going right back to the seventies, Ian McMillan has made an entire career from writing, reciting, judging and publicising poetry. He has often appeared on BBC radio hosting poetry programmes. His poetry will often have a comical, self-deprecating flavour but not always. He is capable of writing deeply serious verses in which every word has been meticulously selected.

However, "Neither Nowt Nor Summat" is not a collection of poems, it is a prose journey in which the author seeks the true meaning of Yorkshire - going hither and thither, talking to people, keeping his eyes and his ears open. It is a warm, well-written and occasionally funny book.

He coins the expression "Not Yorkshire Enough" or N.Y.E. - being very conscious of the fact that his father was actually Scottish as his surname correctly suggests. It is not a concern that I have ever had because not only was I born and raised in Yorkshire, so were my parents, my four grandparents and all eight great grandparents. You couldn't really get more Yorkshire than me.

And yet, just like Ian McMillan, I could also go on a journey looking for the heart of Yorkshire - rather like Paul Simon and his girlfriend Kathy looking for "America" in the song of that name.

Yorkshire is big and proud of what it is - from the cliffs of Flamborough Head to The Yorkshire Dales, from Sheffield in the south to Middlesbrough in the north, from Captain Cook to the Bronte Sisters and from Joe Cocker to David Hockney. We are part of England but far prouder of being Yorkshire.

I very much enjoyed "Neither Nowt Nor Summat". It took me to many places I know well and it was an easy, unpretentious book that spoke truly to me.

Here's an early extract:-

"I’m going to define the essence of this sprawling place as best I can. I’m going to start here, in this village, and radiate out like a ripple in a pond. I don’t want to go to the obvious places, either; I want to be like a bus driver on my first morning on the job, getting gloriously lost, turning up where I shouldn’t. I’m going to confirm or deny the clichés, holding them up to see where the light gets in. Yorkshire people are tight. Yorkshire people are arrogant. Yorkshire people eat a Yorkshire pudding before every meal. Yorkshire people solder a t’ before every word they use..."