"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..."
I need to read this! Even a bloke from 'tWest Riding might have summat to say.
ReplyDeleteHe goes to Scarborough but that's really as far as he gets in The North Riding.
DeleteBy me at least, nowt is a very easy word to pick up and use when those around you are using the word.
ReplyDeleteYou could be an honorary Yorkshireman.
DeleteI like the cover layout.
ReplyDeleteAt least there are no haddocks in it.
DeleteReading this post reminds me of my wife who's been away from Yorkshire since 1953. She could fit right back in if she went back today.
ReplyDeleteHell. Jean left Yorkshire in the year that I was born - seventy three years ago.
DeleteSounds like a good book. I read an excellent book about Canada, Edmonton, and the North not long ago. It was set in 1917, "Coppermine" by Keith Ross Leckie. You might like it.
ReplyDeleteI probably would.
DeleteOne more book I will never read, though it is probably interesting enough.
ReplyDeleteYou will remain culturally deprived Elsie.
DeleteI hear nowt and summat often on "Coronation Street"!
ReplyDeleteDAVE Hi Steve! What have you been doing all day?
DeleteSTEVE Nowt.
DAVE What's for dinner?
STEVE Summat.
It'll probably be available at The Little Ripon Bookshop when I go there again next summer. I know some of Ian McMillan's work and like it. He comes across a very decent man.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that always puzzles me, no matter who says it from where: How can anyone be "proud" of where they (and their parents, grandparents and so on) were born? It is nothing we have DONE, nothing we have decided on. Nationality or regionality is not a merit, but sheer coincidence. Who ever said "I want to be born in England" and then did just that, becoming English by birth, or Yorkshire, or German, or French, or Indian, or Tunisian, or Chinese? My personal definition of pride has something to do with merit and achievement. I am proud of a job well done; I pride myself on keeping my flat clean and tidy, things like that.
When it comes to my nationality and regional heritage, I was born here and grew up speaking the local dialect before I learned to speak "proper" German, and I still speak Swabian every day. So would you say I am "proud" of being Swabian? I did nothing to become Swabian, but I am not ashamed of speaking dialect. So maybe that's another definition of pride.
We can be proud of our families and their presence in the world is equally accidental. I remain proud of being a Yorkshireman even though my birth in this small region of Earth was as accidental as any other birth. I don't pick apart the notion of home pride because it is here in my heart and in my bones. I feel it.
DeleteThank you for explaining what being proud means for you. I love my home town and the language, food and customs of the family and town I grew up with, and feel them in my heart and in my bones, too. I just never associated this feeling with pride, more with love. Or maybe in this case, pride is just one expression of love. The more I think about it, the better I understand what you mean. For instance, my sister and I are proud of our Mum and how she handled the difficult years at the end of my Dad's life, being a widow and having her own health issues, even though it's not my sister or my achievement or merit.
DeleteJust your cup of tea then.
ReplyDeleteYorkshire Tea, of course.
From the tea plantations on The Yorkshire Moors.
DeleteI wish I felt pride in my hometown/home county. I despise the place I grew up and haven't been back since before my dad died. But then, I didn't have a happy childhood, so maybe that makes the difference.
ReplyDeleteBut what about Florence and South Carolina as a whole?
DeleteI enjoyed reading this post about Yorkshire. I started thinking about the place where I grew up in way upstate NY. There is actually a "North Country" accent, and there are unique words that are used. My father used to call a winter hat a toque. Years later, I learned that the word is borrowed from French Canadian. And it makes sense, since Québec was only an hour or so away.
ReplyDeleteI note that at the very recent Buffalo Bills football game with Detroit Lions, the crowd sang the Canadian national anthem. Take that Fake President!
DeleteAnd they have sheep in almost every field.
ReplyDeleteAnd trees where Yorkshire puddings hang, swaying in the breeze.
DeleteI remember so long ago when John Steinbeck wrote "Travels With Charley: In Search of America." Not the same at all, but both men, older aged, decided to travel and explore the place and places they'd written about, were the countries in which they lived.
ReplyDeleteIn 2005, I visited The John Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, California and there was the very vehicle that he had travelled with Charley in. It was a 1960 GMC three-quarter-ton pickup truck that he had had converted into a camper van.
DeleteI loved every minute I spent in Yorkshire. It is indeed a wonderful place.
ReplyDeleteAnd we welcome all rodents - apart from rats.
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